About Ivbeenthere.com and Coffee time at Kopitiam, MRT SIngapore

Here it is! My first food post overseas from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore restaurants, snacks and eateries. After we arrived from Kuala Lumpur Airport, rode a taxi and after that, a mini van going to hotel, we hurriedly eat something at an Indian eatery beside Prescott Hotel. Correct me if I'm wrong. The name of that Indian eatery is Klassik Sup Farrhan's. I did not have an opportunity to take pictures.

Don't worry, we came back again to that eatery after our Singapore trip and I'll share the pictures on my upcoming posts. I'll make a review first about Kopitiam.

Since Pinay Food Junkie is my unique food diary, I posted and shared my whole Kuala Lumpur and Singapore trip on another site. If you would like to know more about Malaysia and Singapore travel tips and costs, Please visit my Ivbeentherebeta travelstream at

http://ivbeenthere.com/travelstream/4-days-family-travel-in-kuala-lumpur-and-singapore/day/1/

Ivbeenthere is a nice travel blog and is still on its beta version. For me, it is a good social media travel blog because you can post your travel adventure or what they call "creating a travelstream" right now without worrying about the characters you type. Plus! You can mark your travel posts into categories such as Reviews, Tips and Blogs.

Tip: If you'll be travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore by bus, buy mineral water and some snacks already in Kuala Lumpur and bring these to Singapore so you'll save more. The immigration did not restrict visitors on bringing food there. Food (actually the cost of living) in Singapore is very expensive.

Please read or browse my travelstream to know the chronological events of my KL and SG travel. Also, I'll post my travel details with more pictures soon at sarisaringisip.blogspot.com

Anyway, we just left our things in the hotel and travelled to Singapore by train and bus. It took us 5-6 hours of travel, arriving morning already in Singapore. After Woodlands Checkpoint and when we reached MRT (Singapore), we decided to have our breakfast at Kopitiam near MRT.

The good thing was... even small food stores and eateries were closed in the morning, Kopitiam was there! When we entered, it was like a food court or a big cafeteria. Of all the food counters, the main one on the front is the only open place to serve people's breakfast cravings.

In terms of this place's atmosphere, it's not so clean just like the average food courts and fast foods and it had an oily smell. Overall, this place was still decent and had bright lights. Also, I like smelling the coffee aroma that surrounds us.

There are load stations situated but I don't know if those were functioning well.

We ordered 2 coffees, a sandwich, 2 slices of bread and 2 raw eggs. Honestly, I thought those 2 raw eggs were boiled eggs because it is unusual in my home country to serve raw eggs.

The price for all of this was SGD 4.60 or currently around PHP 149-150. Food stalls outside were cheaper but as I said earlier, those were close :( If these were open, I want to try milk teas and rice.

The coffees had thick texture and tasted more like chocolate instead of coffee beans.

Eggs served as dipper for bread slices. Those were more delicious than the white eggs we have at home.

 

I cannot tell if the spreads were made or margarine or butter. The sure thing was, it's tasty.

Oops! We have to clean up our table but I cannot remember if we returned the trays and plates to the counter or we just set these on the rightmost side of the table. If I'll be going back to Singapore, I'll don't hesitate to come back and eat again in this place. 

There will be more SG and KL food posts coming!

Rating: 


Kopitiam
Near MRT going to Dhoby Ghaut
Open: 24 hours (as I know)

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The Chocolate Festival until Feb 28!

I know Valentine's is over but hey, you can still grab a chance to have fun with chocolates at the Chocolate Festival in SM North Edsa at The Block Atrium until Saturday, February 28, 2015. Some chocolates can be also bought with discounts.

I bought a crisp praline from Chocolate Truffles and Pralines.

I bought the Crisp Praline

Here's a mini tour around the small chocolate festival exhibit

And now's the Crisp Praline review:

Like Sins and Chocolate Fire, the praline here is expensive around P40-P50. This Crisp Praline is P50.

I know it's better and cheaper to buy Ritters or Cadbury bars but since I tried Sins' pralines before when it was still there in Piazza at Mckinley, I want to get a taste of it. After taking a bite, this praline is more delicious than in Sins where pralines were imported from Singapore. Honestly, I and my friend felt that we were wasting money on Sins even we already sliced and shared 1 piece of praline into two. I haven't tried Chocolate Fire yet. The Crisp Praline has a unique creamy taste. I suggest you try it.

I'll not give a star rating as of this moment. Overall, even this is only a mini festival, I enjoyed it. By the way, Chef Jac Laudico will be here on February 28.

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Hanging out at UCC: Starbucks is too mainstream

Click on image for bigger size

Now is the perfect time to post my UCC review / food experience. Even I haven't updated the blog for a long time, I received continuous likes on my Facebook page. Thank you to the ones who genuinely (also humanly) liked my page! Too bad, I didn't gain likes on my latest Spaghetti Carbonara photo but the good news is.. my photo gained many likes (even with people I don't know) in my personal Facebook page.

I went to Malaysia and Singapore last November and to Baguio this year, 2015. I enjoyed my vacation a lot, that's why I procrastinated after the trip. No worries! I'll still continue to record my food journeys. I'll just post my Southeast Asian food experiences on Wednesday or within this week.

After my Baguio trip, I seldom eat at restaurants. To motivate myself to continue updating my blog, I just want to go to a cafe within Trinoma. Since going to Starbucks and Coffee Bean in a weekend means having to fall in a long line to buy an expensive coffee and act as a lookout whenever one vacates his, her or their table which is very rare, I decided to hang out, eat and drink at UCC Cafe Terrace. I ranted before how small is a cup of chamomile tea there but I thought, I'll try UCC again and I don't want to go to Starbucks and Coffee Bean looking like an idiot and social climber waiting for a vacant table, sipping iced coffee and taking selfies. I don't say that people going there are social climbers but there are too many pretentious people arrogantly ordering and hanging out there. Designer coffee is a status symbol before but now, the supposedly expensive cafe is now a "tambayan" of annoying social climbers and jejemons in weekends. If you really insist on going there in weekends, just make it earlier and hang out on stand-alone Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf branches. Avoid going to malls.

If I will choose a cafe to buy expensive drinks and snacks for a while, I'll go to a more sophisticated and quiet place. UCC (Ueshima Coffee Co.) is a Japanese coffee and tea manufacturer that has developed its business into canned coffees, cafes, products, etc. since its founding in 1933.

Aside from coffee, tea and Japanese food, this coffee house also serves waffles, bread, pasta, parfait and fruits. I asked the waitress first if what's there on their cocoa drink, she said it is served in a cup with whip cream on top. Since I prefer a meal with a large drink and fruits, I ordered Hot Hong Kong Milk Tea (159) and Cereal with Fruits (P229). Service charge is P34.64 (more than 8%) which makes a total of P422.64. I asked another waitress, if can I take pictures of the place, she said I'll just wait. After that, I assumed that they don't allow someone randomly taking pictures because whenever I search for UCC Trinoma, there are only a few pictures (even caught by DSLR) in Google images.

Aha! I now have an idea how to have a nice home breakfast. With a small pack of corn flakes, milk and fruits from our bayan (town), I can serve my family a merely sophisticated breakfast within a small or medium budget.

The Hot Hong Kong Milk Tea taste more like a slight bitter tea leaf but still, it's delicious but more delicious when syrup is added. As for Cereal with Fruits, the fruits are okay, the fresh milk's a good combination with cereals and raisins. I did not pour all the milk and used the remaining for dipping fruits later.

I like the ambiance because there are couches, electric sockets and a free WiFi (Although, I was using my own pocket WiFi). You don't even have to ask for the password since it is already posted on their small promo stands on the table. The wall's decorations are maps, images, all about UCC blah blah research and Japanese characters  Unlike in other coffeehouses, they have male and female comfort rooms. Plus, the women's comfort room is clean and has a bidet.

As a "tambayan", it's a nice place. It can also be a good place for doing virtual work and for studying because I don't even need a headset to minimize distractions. Like Seattle's Best, there's an indoor area for smokers. Ask first if their WiFi's working and test this out so you can decide to not hang out there if it isn't working. If you aren't planning to stay longer and want to try tasty and delicious drinks, you better try other famous milk tea places and cafes.

Staff are polite. When I entered the place, they assisted me immediately and you can ask any of them. 

Rating:

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