ten-ele-ven

Pistachios are my favorite type of nuts.  I am also crazy about pistachio ice cream, especially the one from Creamier.  The flavour is so rich and yummy, I could eat a tub of it on my own.  Their ice cream is great.

I also like eating the waffles made by Creamier.  They have a good batter recipe. A plate of waffles topped with two generous scoops of ice cream – roasted pistachio and the other flavour would depend on who I am with – is enough to chase any blues away.    

A couple of weekends ago, we had roasted pistachio and butterscotch almond at Creamier.  Satiated from ice cream and waffles, I could not resist buying a tub of the popular Madagascar Vanilla flavour.   I could make affogato with it.  This is such a simple dessert to make at home: pour an expresso shot over several scoops of vanilla ice cream.  For a boozy version, add bourbon or Frangelico.   We had affogato at home several times in the last two weeks.  

xoxoxoxo

It is the June school holidays, so I brought my nieces out to the MacDonalds at West Coast Park for breakfast last Monday morning. They were very happy to step out of their grandmother’s flat, and go out to play.

I like the MacDonalds at West Coast – it is spacious, has plenty of parking, and a huge playground-cum-park at the back for children to run around in, and for adults to take a leisurely stroll. Plenty of fresh air, greenery and open space.  The other MacDonalds that I like very much is the one in Bishan Park.  It is also a stand-alone outlet in a large open area, with a big parking area that is a short stroll away.   

While in the car, the girls kept telling me to drive faster because they were HUNGRY, repeating a list of items that they intended to order at MacDonalds (French fries – check; ice cream – check; hotcakes – check; orange juice – check).  It is so good to be a child, when happiness is as simple as eating a packet of French Fries, or a sundae.  

When we arrived at MacDonalds, they were immediately attracted by the huge playground, and decided that they were not that hungry anymore: “Let’s play first!” Ten minutes in the late morning sun, they announced that it was too hot to play, and wanted to go indoors to eat. My mother-in-law and I were so relieved to hear that because we were sweltering in the heat.

After spending two-and-a-half hours with the chattering magpies, I could feel a headache brewing. I needed a coffee. I sent them home, and headed back to the East, with the intention of finding a place to get my coffee fix. I was toying with the idea of swinging by Starbucks@Big Splash – another of my favorite coffee joints – when I remembered seeing a cafe called Craftsmen Specialty Coffee at Siglap V (2 First Street #01-01), the last time I went grocery shopping at Cold Storage located in that building.

I like the ambience at Craftsmen Specialty Coffee – bright, spacious, high-ceiling, and the predominantly brown-grey colour palette.  The cafe’s decor looks adult-ish, and this makes me comfortable hanging out there.  Many cafes in Singapore make me feel like an oldie in a place that caters to the young and trendy, and I stand out for being at least 20 years older than the average age of their clientele (which is probably the case).  

Good cup of cappucino.

I have been lamenting for the longest time about the lack of cafes in the East that serves good coffee. For a long while, the handful of incumbents are Penny University along East Coast Road, and Chock Full Of Beans in Changi Village (I love their latte art). Besides Craftsmen Specialty Coffee at Siglap V, friends have also recommended that I try Coast and Company at Siglap Drive, and Percolate at Bedok North.  I shall be checking these two places out fairly soon.

I was in the Alexandra Road neighborhood, and craving for a cold drink. I remembered seeing a new cafe in this neighborhood on my Instagram feed. I looked up the cafe on the Internet and found the address: Blk 22 Havelock Road, very close to Beo Crescent (where I go to eat my favorite Hainanese curry rice).

Located at the ground floor of a block of HDB flats, the Tastemaker Store is bright, spacious, and generous with space between tables (you are less likely to jab the chaps sitting at the next table with your elbow, and vice versa).  The staff told me that they are only two weeks old, and this probably explains why the cafe was rather quiet on a weekday afternoon of the school holidays.  The cafe has a small menu selling standard cafe food – ham and cheese sandwiches, egg mayo sandwiches, hotdog buns, etc.  Nothing that stood out, except for the lemon curd toast that caught my eye.  There were two or three cakes on display when I was there; whatever they had available looked like they were baked by Maple & Market, but I may be wrong.  

I wanted a gelato that was listed on the menu but this was not yet available.  So I ordered an iced latte, a lemon curd toast with clotted cream, and a hot Americano for my mother.  

The iced latte was a tasty thirst-quencher; delicious, and not too sweet, or too milky. I did not recall seeing an expresso machine, so I am not sure what the cafe uses to make their coffees.   I did not quite enjoy the lemon curd toast though.  The lemon curd was not bad, but I felt that the bread, which had a chewy, muffin-like texture that tasted very dry, did not go well with the tangy curd. The clotted cream was a waste because its rich creamy flavour had been buried under the strong lemon curd flavour.

Until such time when the cafe becomes crowded, for now, the place is a nice and quiet place to chill out in the afternoons.  Or after a scrumptious, sweaty meal of curry rice at Beo Crescent!