Lazy Garage Sunday

Sunday brunches tend to be an uncommon for me. Usually tired out. Sometimes fatigued and dehydrated from the night before from late night and too many drinks. A day without work is the only time I get to forgo the regimental reminder of my alarm clock. I would usually prefer to lounge the morning off in bed or just at home. I'm just back from a mind numbing obligatory cruise, courtesy of work so the early check out hours meant that I'm wide awake on my normally lazy Sunday morning. And since I'm up, there's no reason not to make the best out of it. Yep, it's a brunch, not a jog or a walk in the park.

Wine Garage (30 Merchant Road, Riverside Point, #01-07), a, upmarket restaurant opened by the group managing Brewerkz just next door makes tasty brunch. Service at the restaurant was great.

Wine Garage cheese slate

Their cheese platter was literally served on a wooden slate. The options for the cheese are in one ($7), three ($18) or five ($28) different cheeses. We got the the Montgomery Cheddar, Grana Padano and Stilton Blue (left to right) with accompanying buttered toasts, sliced green apple, white honey and fig jam. The cheddar was rich and of full bodied flavour, Grana Padano fruity and the blue was pungent the way I like it. 

Pumpkin hotcakes with mascapone and maple syrup ($18)

These hotcakes were a reminder of the delicious banana pancakes which I've had from Graze. Comfort food best eaten hot.

Zucchini fritters with smoked salmon, feta and mint ($19)

Didn't really know what to expect out of zucchini fritters before this arrived and I had imagined that they might be battered and fried whole zucchinis. Much like goreng pisang. Lol. The actual fritters looked like patties. Similar to tapioca cakes but made with mashed zucchini. Turned out pretty damn good. The medium done smoked salmon bits with crumbled feta cheese paired well on the zucchini fritters with their tangy, smoky zest.

the "Garage" burger

This burger was awesome. A awesome. I mean, it's going to be on the tops in this blog. Here's a little description I shall plagiarise from the forums of Makansutra by a poster who claims to have received it from Wine Garage's chef Travis Masiero

"160 gr. freshly hand ground chuck (pre-salted the night before), homemade sesame bun, aged Irish cheddar, homemade zucchini pickles, French's mustard, Best mayo, dill pickle relish, shredded cos lettuce, and diced red onion.
They griddle the burgers in American diner fashion to "crust" the outside, lightly toast the bun, and use only whole chuck they grind themselves (never frozen).
That's the standard burger and it costs S$21 and come with a side order of hand cut fries which have been double fried with sage leaves and sea salt.
For $4 extra you can add homemade bacon, which is homecured Kurobuta (Black Pig) Pork that has been cured for seven days and then smoked over hickory chips."

The description alone I found so tempting so I had to try it myself. The waiter had made mention of a slow cook process for the patty to preserve the juice in the meat which was also very tender. This is a world apart from the poor, bland and /or crumbly attempts like my home made ones. Came also with enough of a bite to satiate beef-lust. I went without the Kurobuta pork bacon option since I'm not so sure that baconized Kurobuta was how it was intended to be eaten. And I like my burgers beefy. This was truly a good one. And likely one of the best.