Hot Boss Fav from Tarik

Finally got the hot Boss Fav from Tarik. I like the balance of tea, spices and milk. Flavour was similar to the cold one. Nice. 👍🏼

Teh pandan ais from Tarik

I remember mentioning that I wanted to try the hot spiced tea from Tarik but the weather's too bloody hot. So I ended up with their iced pandan tea instead. I'm not sure if this was just pandan or from a syrup. The flavour got through but didn't taste...natural. Anyways, temperature aside, I thought I like the flavour from the tea at Springleaf Prata Place better. That being said, all that ice here helped in the sweltering heat.

Operator Diner, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne CBD

Operator Diner (Shop 2/130 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, tel : +61 3 8395 6341) is an American styled diner in the CBD.

Long black's sour. Flat white was......ok.

Got ourselves a breakfast muffin call Usual Suspect. Went big with the bacon and sausage combo which is topped with poached egg, cheese, their BBQ bacon chutney and a hash brown on the side.

Muffin was too wobbly to eat by hand. Not bad tasting. The sausage was pretty tasty.

Had an order of their Love Me Tender (chicken tenders) because they mentioned blue cheese sauce. Sauce was cheesy but we didn't get any blue cheese flavour and it was pre-mixed. How did we know it was pre-mixed? We asked if they could have it with more blue cheese and they told us so. Pretty disappointing. The tenders and fries were nicely done though.

Some drink called The Big Apple - single origin coffee (not that I could tell), apple juice, spiced chai, brown sugar foam and cinnamon. Not bad.

Pecan pie was too sweet. Didn't think much of it.

Apparently, Zac Efron was here. Filming. Pretty sure they marked the seat he was at just like what was done when Harry met Sally at Katz's Deli. I just never found out which one was it.

Lune Croissanterie, Fitzroy, Melbourne

Came across Lune Croissanterie and their hype engine which included the founder Kate Reid, a former Formula One aerodynamicist who pivoted to baking and now uses her background to bring technical precision to the world of pastry.

From what we gathered, every croissant takes three days to make through meticulous dough-folding, resting, and temperature control inside a futuristic glass cube kitchen. 

You already know you're never ever going to discern all of that effort in the pastry.

We skipped the shop in the CBD under advisement and visited the larger shop at Fitzroy (19 Rose Street, Fitzroy, Melbourne).

Sparkling water is....free. As much as you want. 😬

That's the "Almond" - frangipane filled with a ridge of toasted almond slices. It's okay-ish. I prefer the rendition of croissant aux amandes from The Stamford Brasserie which I thought was more expressive with the frangipane. 

Kouign amann also okay. Buttery, sweet and almost like a croissant. I don't understand their intricacies enough to comment further but I do feel that the bak kwa version from Tiong Bahru Bakery has more character in its flavour. I am aware it's not a fair comparison.

Their morning bun's like another croissant with sugar and cinnamon. Not bad.

Coffee's pretty decent. Aromatic and adequately intensity from the roast.

We packed a croissant back to try because these were apparently the thing that Lune is known for. It's okay. Pretty sure I didn't taste all the engineering that went into it.

That being said, I didn't dislike anything we had from Lune. I wouldn't mind coming back for more pastries if I didn't have to wait in line for it.

About the cardamom tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe

I've been trying to figure out the difference between the cardamom tea and masala tea from M. Mohd Gani Cafe because they tasted pretty similar. I think I've finally got it. Both have pretty obviously cardamom flavouring. The cardamom tea's cleaner tasting while the masala tea has a warm layering from the spices and heat from the ginger.

Mom's Touch, 18 Cross

Mom's Touch disappeared from our shores some time back and have made a return. The last time we've had anything from them was their spicy chocolate chicken years ago. They're currently located at 18 Cross (#01-03, 18 Cross, 181 South Bridge Road), the building formerly known as Cross Street Exchange.

One of the Singapore exclusives is their Angus beef burger. This was the double. Pretty sure the beef was not salted because I could detect all the locked it beefiness in there that was begging to be released. If only they had salted the meat.

Then again, I got this sauceless and maybe that wasn't how they rolled. I'd classify this as edible but I'm not likely to get it again.

White garlic chicken burger's not bad. Chunky fried chicken thigh meat, ham, onions, pickles, lettuce, cheddar and some garlic sauce. Though pretty similar to that Incredible Burger I had from them years back, I enjoyed this more. Pretty sure it wasn't just because of that garlic sauce.

These were the least Cajun Cajun fries I've had.

Their banana milk coffee was nicer than the recent one from McD. More banana flavour and better tasting coffee. Shame on McD. What I did not like though was that even though I had opted for less ice, there was still a lot of ice. Like half a cup of it.

Revisiting Otter & Pebbles

I was drawn back to Otter & Pebbles by their PB & Otter mostly.

Osmanthus jasmine with cheese foam. This was nice. Light yet flavourful with nice velvety texture.

Otter's Minty Choco which was basically hot chocolate with mint. Starbucks has nicer hot chocolate and the mint was kinda weak.

I liked the soy milk udon for the broth which was savoury/umami. Pretty sure the salmon contributed to the flavour. Udon was ordinary. So was the salmon.

Like I mentioned, this was what got me back.

Blue cheese soufflé pancake again.

Their black sesame oat latte with an extra shot of espresso was pretty darn good. Loads of black sesame flavour on top of that thick coffee. Note to self: one shot will suffice.

Revisiting Pu3

Been some years since we last ate at Pu3. Came back recently for a plate of deliciousness which had (anticlockwise from 11-ish) begedil, assam pedas ikan pari, sambal goreng and lemak turi. Assam pedas packed more heat than I was expecting and was pretty peppery. 👍🏼 Love the savoury richness from the lemak turi too. Very satisfying plate washed down with a sweet creamy teh tarik.

I thought these were fried bananas but turned out to be plantains.

Revisiting Tiong Bahru Bakery @ Raffles City

Been a while since we were last at Tiong Bahru Bakery - mostly because I never liked what I had that much from them previously. Menu's updated a little since.

There's a coconut pandan financier (for SG61) and another one with hazelnuts. Pleasantly surprised that both these were kinda nice. They were buttery enough and I liked the pandan infusion from the former that wasn't overshadowed by coconut. Also liked that saltiness we were tasting from the hazelnut one.

Pretty pleasant custard-y canele.

Found a cream shio pan - gotta admit that I rather liked it. It's a little different from the one from Noci Bakehouse. Something about the cream maybe.

Okay-ish houjicha latte. This one was actually kinda smooth going down and a little more milky rather than a more robust tea flavour I was hoping for.

Taste Ipoh, Raffles City

Some food from Taste Ipoh (#B1-81 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road). As the name of the eatery would suggest, they're doing Ipoh styled food and according to them, the menu's a "celebration of Ipoh's culinary heritage".

Tried their crispy poh piah which has dried shrimp (hae bi) flavour in it. We like this rendition better than the one from Auntie Mei's Crispy Popiah even though it didn't have as much crunchy bits. Did have more sweet sauce and was more competently wrapped.

That's something called Fragrant Spicy Dry Curry Chicken (Varuval) Bee Hoon Mee - not bad. Not understanding the 'varuval' part in the name but I'm guessing it's got to do with the chicken. Texture from the noodles were pleasantly firm and we kinda enjoyed the dark gravy flavoured with curry from the "dry curry" chicken.

Pretty good tasting Ipoh white kopi c. Coffee's fairly robust with adequate fragrance.