Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Froth Cafe @ Big Hotel

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Froth Cafe located in Middle Road, at the basement of Big Hotel has been in my horizon when instagram has been flooding with their taco waffle picture. With great pleasure, I made my way down to the cafe on a Saturday to check out their new menu.

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Salted Caramel Latte 2.8/5

Kicking the day for my brunch at Froth Cafe with the Salted Caramel Latte. Very pretty latte art but the coffee was too sweet and milky for my liking.

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Escargot Vol Au Vents 3.5/5

If this is a plating competition, I would have given it perfect score. The Escargot Vol Vu Vents ($12.90), beautifully painted the picture a garden with snails. There are many components on the plate, such as garlic butter escargot, carrot puree, crushed nuts, baby carrots, savoury soil and miso glaze. I actually like the garlic butter escargot on its own. What I did not like is the soil which was actually on the sweet side, throwing the balance off.

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Roast Duck Salad 2.8/5

My eyes lightened up again when the Roast Duck Salad ($11.90) is served. The smoked duck breast is served on a bed of greens, mint leaves, watercress, cherry tomatoes, sliced peaches, orange, radish and raisins. It is finished with a tangy truffle foam. Once again it is another pretty dish but I will gladly substitute the foam with a sauce, for a more saucy bowl of salad.

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Pork Belly Eggs Benedict 3/5

I was really looking forward to the Pork Belly Eggs Benedict ($20.90) on the menu. Salmon and poached egg is kind of old school now. Great that they have paired pork belly with poached egg on English muffins and dressed with homemade salted egg hollandaise. Pardon my shallow culinary knowledge but I am not sure the reason for the coconut braised pork belly as I could not taste any coconut. Saying that, the pork belly was really fork tender. The salted egg hollandaise was lackluster too. There was no salted egg taste and the dressing was kind of watery.

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Rosti & Fried Chicken 3.5/5

I would say that the Rosti & Fried Chicken ($20.90) is a new variation from the usual buttermilk chicken & waffle. I like the lighter version of the rosti to the usual waffle. Partly that I am not a big fan of sweet and savoury combination. Although I could not taste anything salted egg from the salted egg battered fried chicken, it dd manage to give a crunchy exterior crispiness on top of the succulent chicken. I would have rated the dish highly if not for the homemade potato jam which I thought was not necessary.

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Taro Pancake Stack 3/5

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Taro Pancake Stack 3/5

I was told that the purple sauce for the Taro Pancake Stack ($16.90) is the same taro sauce that is used for Froth's signature taro waffle. I find the sauce once again too sweet and tasted artificial. On the pancake, I actually like the taro stuffing in between them. I could taste the natural flavour and sweetness of the taro.

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French Toast Cube 4/5

The French Toast Cube ($19.90) was probably the best thing on the new menu I tried. The broiche cube with it eggy and buttery aroma was so good that I kept going back for more. A little surprise is hidden inside the french toast cube with a scoop of ice icream of your choice. I recommend to have this eaten quickly or the ice cream inside the toast will melted under the heat and made the interior mushy.

While the food at Froth Cafe did not quite impress me but I think it has great potential. I think the idea and concept is there but a little more thought and fine tuning would raise the mark of the dishes. I would not write them off yet, this is one cafe that has an interesting menu that has potential to capture both the diner's tummy and phone.


[MOVED]
Froth Cafe
Big Hotel
200 Middle Road
Singapore 188980
Tel: +65 63361228
Facebook
Website
Nearest MRT: Bras Basah (CC Line), Bugis (DT Lne, EW Line)

Opening Hours:
Daily: 1130am - 10pm

Direction:
1) Alight at Bras Basah MRT station. Take Exit E. Walk down Waterloo Street. Turn left onto Middle Road. Continue walking down Middle Road. Walk to destination. Journey time about 12 minutes. [Map]

2) Alight at Bugis MRT station. Take Exit C. Walk to junction of Victoria Street and Middle Road. Turn right onto Middle Road. Continue walking down Middle Road. Walk to destination. Journey time about 15 minutes. [Map]

Sunday, November 15, 2015

HamBaoBao @ Beauty World Food Centre

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Located on level 4 of a old food centre at Beauty World Centre is a humble little stall runs by a young couple in their twenties selling their own interpretation of hamburgers. Their stall, HamBaoBao is the directly translation of the English work in Chinese hanyu pinyin. Currently the stall sells only 5 types of burgers only with adds on such as fries, cheese, bacon and additional patty.

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Crispy Pork Belly 3/5

What made HamBaoBao interesting is their Asian inspired burgers such as the Crispy Pork Belly ($5). The first thing I noticed was how light the bun and burger was. The pork belly was well marinated with the cucumber providing the needed balance. Initially I thought the crispy bits of the pork belly skin is a nice touch to the burger but it turned out otherwise for me. It thrown the balance off with its bitterness and it was hard to eat with the crispy bits falling everyone.

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Ayam Buah Keluak 4.2/5

While the crispy pork belly burger did not quite impress me, the Ayam Buah Keluak Burger ($5) was the opposite. I was totally blown away in their interpretation on the signature peranakan dish into a burger. The minced chicken patty infused with the buah keluak, homemade chilli paste and chap chye, all work harmoniously for this delicious and unique burger. I also add on $1 for the fries which was rather pedestrian.

Based on the two burgers I tried, I would say I am really impressed with the Ayam Bua Keluak Burger. Great to see young hawkers giving up their corporate jobs to work long hours in the food centre. Not only that, this young couple has probably started an new era of hawker food with their creativity and innovation of modernising traditional Asian ingredients into their interpretation of the western burgers.


HamBaoBao
Beauty World Food Centre
144 Upper Bukit Timah
#04-49
Singapore 588177
Facebook
Nearest Station: Beauty World (DT Line)

Opening Hours:
Tue-Sun: 12pm - 8pm
(Closed on Mon and even week of Tues)

Direction:
1) Alight at Beauty World MRT station. Take Exit A. Walk to destination. Journey time about 3 minutes. [Map]