Monday, February 16, 2009

Creperie Entre-nous, Out of the Pan, East Coast Park and Changi village

Today was the Chan Brothers Travel Fair and Kelly and I thought we could snag a good deal for our flights so we met and planned for a leisurely lunch at Cityhall. Parked at Shaw Leisure Gallery and cos Tom's Palette is closed on Sundays (bah!) I had to settle for the green tea ice cream from Mr Bean(Shaw Leisure Gallery) cos it was really such a hot day!!..

Green tea icecream $2.20

I felt like I was taken for a ride cos the green tea is so subtle I feel like I'm eating a green coloured original soya ice cream! Which cost 50% more! The last time I'm eating you!

And once again, like Marcus' homemade green tea icecream, the colour of this icecream blends right into my blog background...

The night before I met Michelle at 2am dessert bar and I told her I needed brunch places and she suggested Pump Room but that'd be for another Sunday when I don't have to do errands. She joined us for crepes at Creperie Entre-nous (27, Seah Street, #01-01Tel: 6333-4671) instead.

I've been wanting to try this quaint French creperie since I read about it on atetoomuch and it came out in the Cheap and Good section on Life! before but somehow I never got the chance till now. Cheap and good recommended Stephane's favourite and moines.

There are 2 set menus - $20 set menu you can choose from these savoury crepes and you get a salad and a soft drink thrown in, the $28 set menu gets you the savoury crepe, salad/soup of the day, a dessert crepe and a drink.
The savoury crepes here are called galettes, which are only cooked on one side, and are made with organic buckwheat flour. Their sweet crepes, on the other hand, are the regular wheat flour ones hence the difference in colour and texture. The galettes tend to be more crisp and the wheat flour ones are slightly more chewy.

avocado/cream/garlic/tomato $12
Michelle is quite a fan of avocado so she quite liked this. I like avocado only if its mashed up (think milkshake, icecream) so I thought the creamy avocado went very well with the crisp buckwheat crepe.
egg/emmenthel cheese $13.50
The red haired waitress(whom i think is a co-owner!) asked if we wanted the egg to be done sunnyside up (the way the French do it) or scrambled and we requested for scrambled. This was so so, the cheese was rather bland - Kelly said she had to keep adding salt and it tasted better. Well, I like anything with cheese though some meat will be great! After a while I felt like I was eating ang moh thosai.
Stephane's favourite $16.60 chicken, caramelised onions,french mustard

This was the hot favourite - the chicken was fantastic and had this smokey flavour! Reminded me of the tea-smoked chicken sandwich I had at the Moomba tuckshop. The caramelised onions were really sweet and flavourful too. At first we hesitated about this cos we thought chicken will taste weird in a crepe but luckily we went for it cos it was my favourite. This comes with a salad which has a similar french mustard. Ooh the french mustard was good - fragrant and nutty.
entre nous $7
with home made salted caramel
Oh this was a fantastic dessert crepe and Michelle said she was gonna try making her own salted caramel after this. It was plain, sweet, but very good. You can buy the home made caramel - I think it is $14 for a jar. Michelle and I were fantasising over adding the sea salt caramel icecream from Tom's Palette yums.
Mich left home (to go and sleep tsk tsk) so Kelly and I ventured onto humanjamland at the crowded Chan Brothers Travel Fair. We took a queue number and there were 120 people in front of us so of cos off we were to afternoon tea.. waffles at Out of the pan (basement, Raffles City)! Actually we wanted to go Ji De Chi but it was too far away and it was too hot so we decided to take the air con route and eat at an air con place =P
We were perched up on very high bar seats and this is really the place for being people-watched (NOT people watch we were staring at the fountain the whole time) it is inevitable that the people on the elevator will spy on you cos Krithika saw us and said hello! Not a good idea if you don't want your gluttony for all to see..
Fresh Berries $13.50
with vanilla bean icecream

This waffle is made of whole wheat and is really quite bready - with a slight crisp at the edges. It is dusted all over with sugar and we thought that there was cinammon in the batter as well. It was alright, I guess - especially with the ice cream - although we preferred the fluffier waffle at Shokudo. The strawberries were extremely fresh and sweet and crunchy!

We totally missed the point of the dessert - if you scroll up again to the previous photo you'd realise the whole time we were staring at the backside of this pretty heart shaped chocolate - well not like the waiter had any aesthetic sense either to place the dessert the right way! Seems logical being the love cynics we are, turning our backs on it.

I think the Chocolate waffles sound damn good I feel like going back to try it...the only thing that deterred me was the orange sorbet that came with it I hate anything with orange in it!
Guess what, when I went back to the travel fair after our long long leisurely dessert, there were still 20 people ahead of me! No one entertains your enquiries till you get a queue number! Of cos I gave up (and Kelly left for tuition) so I also left to meet my friends at East Coast.

Thanks to Fiona, I chalked up enough exercise credits for the year! I met Fiona, Sheryl, Kristanto, Tian, and an Egyptian exchange student at East Coast (none of them are in this photo these are some random girls) ..while the rest cycled, I was the lone soul who bladed (cos I cant stand the pain that comes with cycling for more than 45 minutes). Our starting point was Burger King (where I conveniently parked thank god for the lot =p) and end point? Changi Village. I had no idea how impossible it could be on my tiny wheels. Ignorance is indeed bliss, cos I am sure not that ambitious and I don't overestimate my stamina.

It was just about this point at the cable skiing place that the cyclists zoomed off and I was off to chase them =)

Of cos I did pass by rustling bushes which do scare me..
I like this particular turn to Changi Beach..
This stretch parallel to the runway of Changi Airport is an assault to the senses: tiring to conquer, reeks of engine oil, and loud departing and arriving planes..the road went on and on! But I must say I did enjoy the solitude and quietness of the long straight route.
Sun was setting soon, must kuai kuai go to Changi Village before it gets dark. I love the gorgeous rays and I was glad throughout the whole route, the sun was facing my back so it wasnt so glaring!
See how fast the sun is setting?? This was from Changi beach - and there are many planes descending here. Gorgeous background, I loved this place. This was my first time here - I bladed the previous long long stretch before but I didn't complete the whole stretch (so I didnt know it leads to here) as my cyclist friends decided to turn back to return the rented bicycles. But today, my brave friends decided to go all the way to Changi Village and I must perserve!
No guesses, guys, which area I zoomed by...

Super rustic and enjoying the simple pleasures in life

The planes were actually heading towards us inland to land in the air port and it was coolbeans watching the planes appear from the horizon...
After XXXX km and XXXXXXX hours I finally reached Changi Village Hawker centre, where Zhenjin, Jerry and Rou An joined us (smart to miss the cycling =P). Casualty: badly scratched phone that took the fall for me sigh Rous is right skin heals but metal doesnt!!! Thanks Rou An for ferrying my slippers when I was stranded at the Changi Village carpark despite your sprained ankle.
I desperately needed hydration and glucose I was super hypoglycemic and dehydrated. I actually drank a whole 1 litre bottle, and I wolfed down this fantastic dessert that I remembered reading about from nevertrustascrawnyfoodie..not sure if its the same stall (honestly anything sweet from anywhere will do during desperate moments) so I just tried Fu Xiang Hot&Cold drinks..well at least I tried to get the stall right I went to call Michelle (and she wasnt sleeping =P)
The longan red tea jelly with evaporated milk!
Longan red tea jelly with evaporated milk, $2
Actually I gobbled most of it down cos I was so hypoglycemic anything vaguely sweet will taste good. But it is very good, the jelly wobbly and slippery, drizzled with evaporated milk all over and the longans were very crunchy. When the ice melted towards the end the whole concoction of milk-longan juice-red tea colouring was fantastically sweet and yummy.
Funny what intensive exercise does to you...you cant stomach anything heavy or oily or meaty after that! I couldnt take the satay nor the noodles after that and Rous say that its cos all the blood has been diverted from the GIT to the other parts of my body which need the oxygen more....
Besides the Hokkien mee and charkway teow that the girls shared, Wills had meepok and the rest had nasi lemak from this International Food stall (genuine) with the insanely long queue.
I think the fried stuff are good but the rice from Selera Nasi Lemak at Adam Food Centre is still better and fluffier. Here the rice was rather dry and didn't taste of much.

Fly, Will and Rou then drove back to ECP to get Will's van to ferry ALL the bicycles back cos we finished dinner at 845pm and it was quite impossible to cycle all the way back and make it to the shop's closing time at 945pm. To get here, we started at 5.15pm and I reached at around 745pm and they prob earlier.
The worse thing was they got lost on the way to ECP so it took them more than an hour to go to ECP and come back so we were running late - AND the receipt for the bicycle had NO contact number but luckily they called us back (to remind us of the penalty friggin ex at $3 for half an hour when it was not a clause in the receipt!!!!)
After getting all the bikes in, Rous Jerry and I stayed with Sheryl to wait for her parents and Jerry fetched us all back - quite an eventful night - had to scurry back so Rous and Kristanto could exchange back their phones, and my bladder was BURSTING from that 1 litre of water (and I didnt wanna use the Changi Village hawker centre toilet) so had to hurry rush back to Burger King but the toilet was on a damn ulu second floor and it was already 1045pm I didnt wanna kena peeping tom so I had to speed to Macs to the toilet then had a second pseudo scare with the lost camera when I came home so sorry frightened Jerry and Rou an and Zhenjin with my moment of panic! All my food photos!!!!!!! I was really scared that the camera popped out of the boot cos there were many many humps along the road of East Coast Park and very dark very hard to see!
Blah the worse thing was the next day I woke up to find the $54 deal from JetstarAsia has vanished! Heck, SIA here I come! Travel fairs, never again!

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