Brunch Hopping Around Singapore

Today is a complete rest day free from boxing or Muay Thai training, weight training, writing assignments, photo shoot assignments, work and client appointments.  So I had the time to turn my Saturday morning into an "egg-straordinary" gastronomic adventure by "brunch-hopping" across the island.  

Brunch to me, is a late breakfast that is filling enough to allow me to skip lunch yet light enough for me to pretend it is healthy.  Jerome would not even know how to spell the word brunch let alone understand what it means. When I explained the concept of having a late breakfast, he came to the conclusion that  any dish that  included some element of breakfast items like sausages, bacon or eggs must be a brunch-type dish. While brunch for me should be light enough of a meal yet filling enough to last throughout the day till I enjoyed a robust dinner several hours later, Jerome's idea of brunch was that it had to be filling enough to span across 2 days of meals. A pint of beer might even accidentally creep into his brunch fare. 

This was Jerome's idea of brunch, which was currywurst served with potato salad  and a side of spatzle at Brotzeit German bier and restaurant. This would have sat in my stomach for days.  

Jerome's take on the currywurst pretending to be brunch? - Belly Superb.

My first brunch stop this morning was Tolido's Expresso Nook.  The space was indeed a little nook but the menu was extensive.  Even at 10.45am when I thought most of Singapore would be sleeping in at the start of the weekend, this restaurant was chock a block full of people. All the tables were taken up both in and outside the restaurant apart from a wee one which  thankfully was not reserved. It had my name on it.

I wanted to add a touch of class to my breakfast by ordering the truffle scrambled eggs. It came served with a side of rocket and breakfast potatoes. I thought that drizzle of truffle oil had enriched the eggs enough. There was no need to scramble the eggs with cheese. The dish was way too rich for me and I ended up not being able to finish it.  I made a mental note to request that cheese not be added to my scrambled eggs the next time I paid Tolido's a visit.

My take on the truffle scrambled eggs? - Belly "Jelak" (a Singlish term for any food that is nauseatingly rich).

The hubby ordered a rosti with smoked bratwurst.  This was served with a sunny side egg and according to him, it was delicious.  The rosti was crispy although we looked at the thick slab of rosti initially with some reservations. If it was thick, it could not possibly be crispy but it surprisingly was.  This dish would be  worth ordering again at our next visit. 

The huge size of the servings here at Tolido's made our brunch one that was definitely value for money too.

The hubby's take on the rosti with smoked bratwurst? - Belly Good.

Another noteworthy brunch venue is also a tiny little nook called One Man Coffee, located at MyVillage at Serangoon Gardens.  These guys were so accommodative which was really nice to see. When they realised that I was  fairly conscious about my diet, they  customised my Big Brekkie by adding more greens and removed the toast. In the end, my dish was artistically served in a riot of colours and looked like it leapt out of the pages of a glossy food magazine. My Big Brekkie was served with 2 x 6-minute eggs, button mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, honey ham and heaps of baby spinach. This cafe did  not have many tables because of the small space and its menu was not extensive. However they made up for all that with great attitude,  a lot of pride in the way they made the effort to plate their food attractively, customer-centricity and simple yet delicious fare.

My take on the Big Brekkie? - Belly Beautiful Yet Tasty.

Then if you are in a "know what you want and want what you get" kind of mood, hop over to Cedele's across the road from MyVillage at Serangoon Gardens. 

The hubby ordered an eggs benedict without even looking at the menu just because Cedele always served a good plate of eggs benedict. Like I mentioned, if you liked eggs benedict, and do not want to agonise over substantial menu choices, and you would just know what you wanted and would want what you get, then Cedele's eggs benedict would be your breakfast of choice.  Cedele's eggs benedict came served on brioche and with a side of salad and cherry tomatoes. 

The hubby's take on Cedele's eggs benedict? - Belly OK lah.

While still on that egg-straordinary adventure with brunch fare, the one brunch venue not to be missed would be Wild Honey located either at Mandarin Gallery or Scotts Square. The Scotts Square branch is usually not as crowded as the original branch at Mandarin Gallery on weekends. I would recommend their Aussie breakfast of 120gm of Australian sirloin steak grain-fed for 120 days, served with red and yellow onion confit, fried egg sunny side up, breakfast potatoes, home-made baked beans, sautéed mushrooms, spicy tomato chutney and grilled ciabatta.  The dish would always be cooked to perfection.  I had often been disappointed by the traditional steak and eggs because either the steak would be over-cooked and the egg would be under-done or vice versa.  The one at Wild Honey was always perfectly cooked and was worth every cent of SGD30 which was the cost of the Aussie breakfast.

My take on Wild Honey's Aussie breakfast? - Belly Awesome.

However, the best breakfast yet would still be our traditional Singaporean fare of 2 soft-boiled eggs served with a spot of dark soy sauce and a dash of pepper.  I had mine at my favourite local cafe, Dong Po Colonial Cafe at Kandahar Street. 

The hubby ordered the famous Bostock at Dong Po's. Although it was not a traditional Singaporean breakfast, the Bostock at Dong Po was a best seller at the cafe.  If you are not familiar, Bostock is a buttered toast with a sprinkle of almonds and sugar. I must admit that Dong Po's Bostock tasted really super.

I also had discovered that Dong Po sold their home-made jams at their cafe too. When I spotted them, a wave of nostalgia hit me. I loved this cafe even much more now.

My take on Dong Po's traditional Singaporean breakfast fare? - Belly Heartwarming.

The hubby's take on Dong Po's "Angmo" fare? - Belly Awesome.

About The Writer:

This blog post was co-written by my brother Jerome and I. Although we are siblings who grew up 11 years apart, shaped by differing experiences to see the world from different perspectives, we do share a common obsession – FOOD.  We celebrate our passion for life with food.  However, our attitudes to food are quite different and the way we celebrate our love for food are also quite different.  Jerome lives to eat and hoovers everything edible that crosses his path.  As he shovels food into his mouth with that fork in his right hand, he takes photographs of what he eats, and posts pictures and notes up on Facebook with his left.  Often, his beautifully written prose about what he had eaten would be 7 paragraphs in length and would not have any punctuations in between because he had been too busy multi-tasking.  

I, on the other hand, eat to live. It is not just about my attempts to eat healthily. As I am a “cam-whore” and “social media hussy”, I spend about half an hour styling my food, taking photographs, writing notes and posting them across my social media platforms before eating them, right after the hubby has paid for the bill and is about to head out of the restaurant.  I enjoy reading all my posts about what I had eaten because I know that I had lived fully in spite of watching what I eat.  Welcome to the foodie world of the quirky Ong siblings.