Spruce@Firestation - Upper Bukit Timah

A few months ago, Spruce opened in Upper Bukit Timah. It's located at the iconic old Bukit Timah Fire Station. They have done a good job with the renovation and the old fire station without any pillars in the middle looks really nice for a cafe.


That's what you see from the front. You enter via the back of the building.


The entrance from the back where there are lots of parking spaces available if you are driving there.

I went there recently with friends visiting from Kuala Lumpur. It was a public holiday and a Monday and we did not expect it to be so packed. Even the service staff said, Sundays isn't that packed too! We got seated around 15 mins later.

Here's what we ate that morning:


Spruce Signature Steak Benny ($31)
Poached Egg, Ciabatta with Black Pepper Hollandaise.

Who says you can't have steak earlier in the day? Brunch is a good time for steak!
I had a bite of Jon's food and I wanted to have more. Too shy to eat all of it! I read before that they use USDA Beef here, this was probably the same?


Spruce Big Breakkie ($19)
Eggs (Scrambled, Poached or Sunny Side Up), Bacon, German Sausage, Roasted Tomato, Roasted Potato, Mushrooms and Focaccia Toast.

Eric had the big breakfast. The Sunny Side up looks so good right? Eric said the sausage was nice too. Makes we want to come back and order everything over again!


Crab Cake Benny ($25)
Ciabatta, Crabcake, Poached Egg, Back Bacon and Hollandaise.

Nic had the crabcake. Doesn't the plate looks as if there's a crab on it?


Spruce Signature Ahi Tuna Tartar ($22)
Toasted Ciabatta and Avocado.

I liked the Ahi Tuna Tartar. Everything has been mixed and I could just eat it just like that. The ciabatta was toasted and really crispy. The avocado spread over each crispy piece of ciabatta with some tartar was delicious.


Banana Hotcakes ($14)
Honeycomb Butter and Blueberry Syrup.

Why did we order this? We were seated where the food that comes out of the kitchen had to pass us. We keep seeing hotcakes after hotcakes coming out and we were tempted!


If you are a hotcakes person, try this. the honeycomb butter and blueberry syrup replaces the usual maple syrup. It can be quite sweet for some people though.

Spruce's brunches (which was introduced to me by the brunch loving wife) is available on weekends and public holidays only. 

The ingredients were very fresh and the food delicious. We love how the old building around Singapore has been transformed by the owners of Spruce who has also done up other old buildings like Alkaff Mansion.



Spruce@Firestation
260 Upper Bukit Timah Road
#01-01
Singapore 588190

Tel: +65 6466 5582
Hours: Mon- Fri: 11.30am – 12.30am / Sat-Sun: 9.30am – 12.30am
(closes late because of the bar, call to ask when dinner service ends)

Cedele @ Wheelock Place

The wife and I were hungry and we thought of a few places to eat a few evenings ago. We were near the Thai Embassy end of Orchard Road. She's really hungry and could not put up with my deciding of this or that. Thai at Orchard Towers (don't feel like having spicy), Tonkichi (will be tempted to eat fried food), O Coffee Club (non air con, was a warm evening), Bangkok Jam (spicy food), Ion Orchard restaurants (lazy to cross the road), Antoinette (not in the mood for Paris Garden setting).

She decided Cedele it will be. All right. That will be it. Don't argue with hungry people. They bite!
We realised Cedele has renovated their Wheelock Place branch. It looks much brighter now, cleaner look too.

The wife gave a 'I told you I am right' smirk when we saw they have an opening special board. Pasta Special Set: a soup, a pasta and coffee/tea for $21.80. Sounds like quite a good deal!


We guessed the kitchen was a bit busy, as we waited a while for the food. The wife was too hungry that she decided some carbo from the bread bin will ease the hunger pangs. We have been trying to avoid unnecessary carbo in the evenings.

This sesame crusted bagel tasted exceptionally delicious to the hungry wife. A bite and a smile came to her face, I guessed I must try it too. It's quite fragrant with all the sesame seeds, but we thought it was a bit tough to bite though. 


The Soup we had was the mushroom soup of the day or something that sounded like that. We did not catch it but we were quite surprised when it came.

Surprise 1: We like the colour and the taste of it. It tastes like potato yet it had hints of pumpkin. A nice fragrance to it too. Yes, it had mushroom pieces hidden below it.

Surprise 2: The small soup is not small. It's bigger than what most places will serve for full portions!



I had the Shredded Beef Ragu. (Normally, it would have been $18).

I chose linguine for the pasta. Most of us won't have the patience to prepare beef ragu at home, slow-cooking beef for 3-4 hours though the ingredients are simple. It was a delight to put tender chunks of beef in your mouth.

(I don't know if they took a long time to cook it, maybe they pressure cooked it, most of us will do it the slow cook way at home right?)


The wife had the Lemongrass and Lime Fish Pasta. (normally $17.90).
It has a limey/sourish refreshing taste to it. It's a herby dish that she likes. We will experiment something like this at home.

It's quite a decent portion of sea bass there too. The tomato salsa gave it a nice touch too.


For tea, we could pick any tea except 2 from the menu. We had organic green and red rooibos teas.

We thought this is quite a good deal. Cedele serves decent food and lots of organic variety too. This time we did not have our usual Home-Style Chunky Beef Stew and chicken wings!

We are not sure when the deal will end, we just happen to walk pass it. So I thought I will put this post up quick, so some of you might get to try it too. Give them a call to ask. ;-)

Cedele @ Wheelock Place 501 Orchard Road #03-14 Wheelock Place Singapore 238880 Tel: +65 6732 8520 Hours: Mon - Sun/Public Holidays: 10.00am to 10.00pm Web: http://www.cedeledepot.com

The Marmalade Pantry At The Stables (Fairways Drive)

The Marmalade Pantry has always been on many people's list of favourite place to dine. You can tell by the crowd at ION Orchard. They served food that's what many consider comfort food. The branch most familiar to all is the ION Orchard branch. Do you know that they have a branch at Fairways Drive too?

The Fairways Drive or Stables as they call it has a very 'countryside' feel to it. It's opposite to Rider's Cafe if you know where that is. Depending on the time, you might see horses at the area too! A nice place to escape to if you want to get away from the city rush.

We booked our parents for brunch last weekend at the stables. We know they would like the breakfast / brunch fare here and it's also quite near their home.


So much greenery, and this place is also the Central Kitchen for the Marmalade Pantry group. There are two main dining area here, the air-conditioned part in the building, and the natural air at the verandah of the building.


The Marmalade Pantry at the Stables only open for dinner on weeknights and all day weekends.
If you are coming here, I recommend you drive or take a taxi.


The mother-in-law had the Eggs Any Style. ($20)
It's the big breakfast with eggs done your choice. Eggs your style! MIL likes fried eggs.

There was a choice of Grilled English Sausage or smoked bacon. MIL had the bacon.
It comes with quite delicious sauteed mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, home made baked beans and whole wheat toast.



Father-in-law wanted something light and he ordered the Spicy Oriental Roast Beef Salad. $22.
A nice big bowl of salad, Thai Style with roast beef slices.

Green mangoes, basil, mint and chilled glass noodles. For those who don't take carbo, this is a good option. Very delicious too!


I had the Steak Sandwich ($24), medium done. Oh, the steak was really juicy! Look at the juice oozing out and all sucked up by the bun. The steak was also slightly red part in the middle, yum yum!

The buns were spread with wasabi mayo and there was caramelized chunks of onions below the piece of steak and rockets above it. I am glad I ordered it, steak for breakfast, camouflaged like breakfast!  I wished there was more wasabi though. :-)


Comes with a bowl of salad too. The side were yam and sweet potato crisp.


KopiKosongGirl had The Pantry Club ($24).
When it came, you could see she was really happy. Their version club sandwich was very tasty.

Honey baked ham, roast chicken, eggs, gem lettuce and roma tomatoes. There was also tasty yam and sweet potato crisp for sides too.



How can one not order their marvelous cupcakes when one goes to Marmalade Pantry?
This was the Bananarama ($4.50) that we shared. It's very delicious banana walnut cake with caramel cream cheese.

Note: At this branch, you will a nice big table that displays all the cupcakes. It's like you are visiting someone's house and they displayed all the cakes and desserts for you to choose. It's so tempting!

We noticed FIL's face was delighted with this cupcake. The caramel cream cheese was so tempting!



Oh.. we ordered this and we absolutely loved it and we think you should try it too!
This was the Sea Salt Caramel Cheesecake ($8).

It comes served very cold and one bite and you can finish it all! A firm texture that melts into creamy goodness when it's in your mouth. A sweetness with a slight saltiness really excites the tongue!

It goes quite well with the range of Gryphon Tea that they serve here. Parents in law shared a pot of White Gingerlilly that was so fragrant.



Some of you know that I juice quite often at home from my Instagram photos. I tried 2 glasses of this 'liquid salad' some time ago and really love it. So I ordered it again. It's called "Flush" ($8).

Liquid salad because it's all veggies in it! Spinach, carrots and beetroot! The wife think it's horrible, but I really love it! (She loves salad, but I think liquid salad's not for her!)



We like this venue and the countryside view. You can see families coming here for their weekend brunch. It's kids friendly place too. We were enjoying a nice quiet meal until one family came in. They have two very cute kids with nice golden hair, but they were screaming and running non stop for over 10 minutes! We know they are definitely not French, for French kids always sit quietly at dining tables. (You read about bringing up kids the French way right? It's so interesting!)

Running outside in the grass area is ok, but not inside the restaurant when servers are bringing out hot food and liquids. Thank goodness the screaming and running finally stopped when the mum realised it's an accident waiting to happen.



We saw this on the table and thought I should quickly rush this post out so that some of you can take advantage of it.

Tonight, if you are there, you get your 4th main course for free!
Some of you may 'leap' for joy with this offer! Only once in 4 years! A Leap Year offer!
Grab 3 other friends and head there tonight!

The Marmalade Pantry at the Stables 55 Fairways Drive Singapore 286846 Tel: +65 6467 9328 Web: www.themarmaladepantry.com.sg

Petit Provence @ The Central

Our bro got off work earlier than usual, and he went to The Central which is next to his office and brought this back to us. We used to buy this from the Holland Village branch.

The Choco Wassant and the Cream Wassant. Comes with a pack of 10, 5 of each flavour and cost $6. This was what was left behind for me this morning.



Yes, they tasted as yummy as ever. Light and fluffy, very tasty.



Here's the snapshot of the bag. It has all the details you need to find it.
You should really go to this place and buy it and try it. Pictures do injustice to it. ;-)
(ok ok, some people might say its overrated, but our family loves it!)



Petit Provence
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
#B1-29 The Central
Singapore 059817

Muffins from Bliss Haven, Toa Payoh Lorong 1

Last Friday, to satisfy one colleague's craving for 'shao la' (Roast Meat), he 'die die' want to go to Toa Payoh to eat. Those pictures later.

But another colleague who used to be Toa Payoh resident until recently, went to 'tapow' back these muffins. I would have to ask where the exact location, but it's somewhere near HDB Hub, where we ate.

They are actually quite nice.... Can you see the oreos chunks? They are big and fluffy!



Close up of the chocolate chip one that I ate.



This stall it seems have an interesting history. It's located at a Cze Char store called Bliss Heaven, but instead of having Cze Char, it is selling muffins now.

Muffins of 6 diff flavours cost $1 each.
Found this link if you want to read more about this stall.


Talk about muffins, do you have a muffin? It seems when people call you muffin, it means you have a tummy that is overflowing from your pants, just like the muffin above! hahaha....

Ghee Leong: Traditional Bakery (Part 2)

Continuation from yesterday's post.

They also produce French Sticks. They are being fermented.



Look at this old old machine used to slice bread!



The men at work! That oven in the wall is supposedly very very old. Heard that this building is to be preserved as a heritage site. It's very very hot!



See the huge bread/buns that was in the above picture? We were there till they brought it out to the racks. Just beside the traditional black crusted bread.



A close up for you to see. You feel like having some of the bread now?



Hope you like this traditional bread series.

Ghee Leong: Traditional Bakery

This is one of the few traditional bakeries in Singapore. They produced the black crusted bread. This shop is located at Whampoa Drive and produce these breads for provision shops and coffee shops.

The shop is called Ghee Leong. Look at their also archaic signboard. Nice eh?



You can see racks and racks of these "chao tar" (burnt) top bread.



Do not judge a bread by its looks! Here is a close view.



Can you imagine eating the crust? No, it's not meant to be eaten!



They are to be sliced off! It looks like these!



They are then sliced and pack into bags. Sorry, I bought the bread but forgot to take photo of it! These will then become the 'kaya toast' that you get in many shops.



In tomorrow's post, I shall post more of the breads :-)
Bread lovers, stay tuned!