Penny University

It has been what, 4 months?! Sleepless nights meeting tight project deadlines left me with no time for the blog. So, on the day of our final submission of projects, I went for brunch with Vanessa, Salina and Qian Hui at Penny University to celebrate our tiny victory! One step closer to poly graduation yay!

The smell of endless possibilities hit us once we entered the cafe, oh I meant the smell of coffee. However, we did not expect the cafe to be fully packed that Thursday afternoon (or because it is a small space), so we had to wait some time before we got seats. 

Vanessa ordered the Vanilla-infused Greek Yogurt with Granola ($6) that came with strawberries and blueberries because she was not feeling as hungry as the rest of us.

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese, Capers, Dill on Bagel - $8 

Salina almost broke her tooth trying to eat her bagel but the smoked salmon made her day.

Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon - $12

I went for the poached eggs on sourdough toasts and smoked salmon, because that seemed like the only right thing to do that day. Combining rich and creamy eggs Benedict and fatty smoked salmon, things do not get better than this!

Croque Monsieur - $12

This is a dish of turkey ham topped with gruyere, parmesan and homemade bechamel sauce, served on toasted ciabatta and mustard. If you are a fan of cheese like Qian Hui, you will definitely like this dish.

The Peppermint Hot Chocolate and Hot Chocolate (priced at $4 each cup) that we ordered were quite good as well. The minty flavor provided an invigorating sensation, which we really needed that day. I saw that some other diners were having an interesting bowl of colors and found out from the staff that they were having Turkish Eggs. Seems like this dish is rather popular, try it if you are there the next time!

Penny University 

Closed on Monday

Tuesday to Thursday: 8.30am - 6pm

Friday & Saturday: 8.30am - 12am

Sunday: 8.30am - 9pm 

402 East Coast Road

Singapore 428997

63450955

A Frugal Way to Celebrate New Year

On the last day of each year, everybody prepare for a major celebration: Count down.

Even though a new year is approaching, that does not give us the excuse of spending a lot of money to celebrate it. We can still have fun even on a budget! Last year, we welcomed the new year by making it a potluck dinner gathering at Glenn's place, so that everyone did not have to spend too much money and we get to sample everyone's homemade creations! By hosting the gathering at one of your friends' place will also save you the hassle of going out on New Year's Eve. You know how crazily packed everywhere would be.

So, here's how we celebrated New Year with everything costing under $50!

What?! Really?!! (Sorry Esther and Hazel, this is too funny I just had to!) 

Generous portion of aglio olio prepared by Chef Lovell and his Assistant Chef Rui Xuan! Spending only about $11.30 on the ingredients, both of them whipped up 9 big plates of restaurant standard, chicken mushroom aglio olio for all of us! 

So good that the guys could not resist eating from the pan!

Tip to keep your guests occupied after dinner: Bring card games. Although this is quite a popular game, if you bring Cheena games then all you'll do is just spend the night trying to figure out what the card does. 

Chef Jia Wei prepared 7 rolls of sushi for us and with each roll serving about 20 pieces, we had a sushi feast! I only managed to eat 2 pieces of sushi though, because the guys were like hungry ghosts. Jia Wei mentioned that he used Japanese cucumber, egg, carrot, mushroom and crab stick as the main ingredients in his sushi. As much as I love my mushrooms, I preferred the egg and crab stick combination! All these for less than $20! 

Tip from Jia Wei: Buy your ingredients from Sheng Siong. They are cheaper there. 

Chef Glenn wanted to re-create his own Blackball dessert with taro balls but he made some glutinous rice balls with grass jelly instead. The grass jelly costs $2, while the glutinous rice balls were made from leftover flour from last time. Everyone agreed that it tasted better with the canned sea coconut that I brought. Hehe.       

            

I decided to contribute by getting canned longans and rambutans stuffed with pineapples because I have zero cooking talent (shame on me I know) unlike the guys. Add some ice and water, viola! You have the world's easiest dessert. Hahaha. 

Lovell very kindly got us this Mont Blanc cake from River Gauche Patisserie. Mont Blanc comes with traditional vanilla layered with smooth chestnut filling and whipped cream, finished with chestnut cream and Japanese chestnut. A really unique cake apart from the other cakes that we have tried before.

What better way to end a year, and start another one with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Based on James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name, this movie will surely get you thinking about what you're doing with your life.

Wishing everyone a belated happy new year!

Grub

Grub believes in using responsible ingredients and ensures that they only use the freshest and the most natural as possible. Their promise is that what they serve, they would serve it to their own families as well. You will never believe how far we walked just to get to Grub. I almost gave up but Dharshiney pushed us on and was determined to get us to that place to have dinner. Initially, I was worried that we would not be able to get a seat as they do not accept any reservations. However, I was glad we managed to reach there before the dinner crowd and got seated immediately.   

I ordered the Crispy Fish Burger ($14) while Dharshiney ordered the Pork Steak Burger ($13). I like how each table has a glass jar of artificial flowers (makes for great photo background and liven up the space) and how the food is being presented on a wooden board. I have a weakness for anything wood! 

Both of us agreed that the buns tasted sweet and are just as tasty as what was being put between them as well. I love fish and I always order fish if I see it on any menu. But, I will always have a hard time finishing the fish if it is not to my liking. So, I was really happy that the haddock that Grub used for this Crispy Fish Burger is fresh and seasoned well so much so that I finished the entire burger by myself! Of course I did gave some to Dharshiney to try, hehe. 

As for Dharshiney's Pork Steak Burger, it was a total hit. It is quite rare to find a decent pork burger here in Singapore. Most are either too dry, overcooked, and thoroughly unappetizing. Grub's take on it is the complete opposite. The pork steak packs a punch with its succulent tender goodness paired with sweet apple and chimichurri sauce. Dharshiney wiped the entire serving board clean. That's just how good it was. 

The fries tasted pretty normal though. I jokingly told Dharshiney that this is atas McDonald's. Haha.

Located in the middle of Bishan Park, it was no surprise that Grub attracts families and large group of friends. With long tables and benches, the sheltered alfresco area seems like a great space to gather all your friends for some good burgers amid the greenery. The servers were really attentive, or maybe because there wasn't too many people then. Nevertheless, it was a good service on their part.

Grub
510 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1, Singapore 569983 (Bishan Park)
Weekdays: 5.30pm to 10.30pm
Weekends: 9am to 2.30pm / 5.30pm to 10.30pm
Closed on Mondays
64595743

Public Garden Flea Market

I have been a fan of Public Garden ever since I attended one of their first few flea markets at the MICA building. I like how Public Garden handpick their vendors and bring local businesses together to offer the public one-of-a-kind products. Meant to blog about their Christmas Markets before Christmas but procrastination is the mother of all blog posts. 

These badges by Small and Able accurately describes me. 

The first time Glenn saw these terrariums, it gave him an idea to make one for me because I have always wanted a terrarium in my room. Due to inexperience, the plants died while under my care. :(

This stall owner uses really unique containers and she designed the terrariums really well. She was very friendly in introducing the plants and even provided us tips to taking care of our terrariums even though we didn't buy anything from her. Terrariums make really great gift for anyone as they are very pretty and require very little maintenance. Consider terrariums the next time if you have no idea what to buy for your friends!

Pretty cakes from Little House of Dreams 

Watches from Naked Glory

Red Velvet Dessert Shots from The Sweet Movement

These cat brooches caught my eye and Glenn (being the nice boyfriend) decided to buy one for me!

Only friendly people at the Public Garden! The stall owner of My Itchyfingers kindly shared with us how she made all these cute little things by hand. Not that she would need to be afraid of people copying her because it is not easy to make one as nice as these. 

Pop by Public Garden for a nice surprise the next time they have a flea market!

A Frugal Way to Celebrate Our 5th Anniversary

I know we haven't blogged a post for almost x months now. It's not that we didn't have any place to go, just that we couldn't get to the writing. This post has been sitting in our drafts since October, and we finally got it done!

We were at some ulu place around Tiong Bahru area, Tiong Poh to be exact, because I had always wanted to try the cupcakes from Plain Vanilla. And more importantly, it was our 5th anniversary! There were also a few other stores that were on my list, and since they were nearby, we decided to kill many birds with one stone. Or visit many stores in one day. Whatever goes.

Along the way, we saw this retro-looking bicycle which I like very much. 

So much so that I had to take a picture with it.

And I made Glenn take a picture with it too. 

I have been craving for fruit tarts ever since I watched MasterChef Season 4 Epsiode 4 where Natasha impressed the judges with her Lemon Pie Tart. So, we headed straight to Drips Bakery Cafe first as they specialize in tarts! We ordered their Fruit Tart ($8.50) and Chocolate Tart ($6.80) to share.

With the fresh mangoes and raspberries arranged in such an eye pleasing pattern on the tart, it is hard to resist eating the tart! The crust is flaky and lightly browned with just enough crunch. And look at how generous they are with the fruits! Everything came together perfectly.

The Chocolate Tart tasted like the chocolate truffles that Glenn made for me on Valentine's Day. However, Glenn felt that it had a tad too much of chocolate powder, which caused us to cough whenever we accidentally inhaled some of it, which is quite a lot of times.

We like how the cafe was spacious and adorned with different furniture. Think couches with cushions, colorful chairs and inviting sunlight from the skylight. 

Drips Bakery Cafe

82 Tiong Poh Road, #01-05

Singapore 160082

Sunday to Thursday: 11am to 9.30pm

Friday & Saturday: 11am to 11pm

62220400

Plain Vanilla Bakery was our next stop!

Glenn showing me a sinister look with a knife he found.

There were at least 10 different flavors of cupcakes to choose from! Since there were only 2 Strawberry White Chocolate cupcakes left, I assumed that it must be good. Glenn has never been able to resist a Red Velvet so that was easily his choice. Priced at $3.50 each, the cupcakes were moist and the icing on top were unique compared to the other cupcakes we have eaten before. Instead of cream, the icing was slightly hardened, but just as nice.

Refreshing cucumber lemon water for customers' consumption. 

I heard that you can rent their bicycles and explore the neighborhood on them! How cool is that. I only found out from my friend, Adelina after I got home. Oh well, there's always a next time! :)

Plain Vanilla Bakery

1D Yong Siak Street, Singapore 168641

Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 8pm

Saturday / Sunday: 9am to 8pm / 9am to 6pm

Closed on Mondays

64655942

Books Actually is a pretty interesting space with tons of books and a cute cat. If you support Singaporean authors and their publications, there are many unique reads that Singaporeans will definitely relate to. Apart from books, they also have many retro items that you can reminisce to if you're a 90s kid or older.

Books Actually

9 Yong Siak Street, Singapore 168645

Monday: 11am to 6pm

Tuesday to Friday: 11am to 9pm

Saturday / Sunday: 10am to 9pm / 10am to 6pm

62226195

There are lots of things you can do together with the one you love in celebrating your anniversary. You can just be together and be lazy the whole special day.

"I don't have a million places I want to go. All I want, is to bring you to the places you desire." - Glenn