Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label Tanjong Pagar Food. Show all posts

How much calories does a bowl of the Daily Cut have?

Petite bowl with peri peri sauce from the Daily Cut

Everytime there’s a long queue upon one particular restaurant, my curiosity is piqued. I wonder if this is the trait that I develop after residing in Singapore for many years or human is just a curious creature. But without a fail, a long and snaking Q is always formed at the Daily Cut around lunch time and even late after 8PM. Despite many other F&B sell similar concept of healthy bowl, the Daily Cut seems to be the champion that trump them all, at least it terms of queue line.

Since they look so healthy and popular, I bought them on a few occasion and I think these healthy bowls turn out to be delicious. And that’s probably the reason of the long Q. So since I’m no longer curious on how does the healthy bowl from the Daily Cut taste, my curiosity is now focused on how much calories contained in one healthy bowl of the Daily Cut?

But then again, the concept of healthy bowl in the Daily Cut is pick and mix, so I suppose the calorie content will really depend on the choice made by each customer. Right, so let’s see what did I pick from the latest summer menu from the Daily Cut: A petite bowl consisting of purple sweet potatoes (base), orange chicken breast (protein), broccoli and tahini peanut eggplant (supplements), parmesan breadcrumbs (toppings) and peri peri dressings (which is provided in separate container, thankfully).

With the help of kitchen scale which I bought from Daiso at 2SGD + myfitnesspal app, I tried to find the closest equivalent to items which I pick for my bowl above. Here goes the calorie:

120 grams of purple sweet potatoes: 103 cal
80 grams (2.8 oz) of grilled eggplant: 77 cal
100 grams of grilled chicken breast: 131 cal
180 grams of fresh steamed broccoli: 51 cal

I did not bother to check the calorie from the parmesan breadcrumbs and peri peri sauce though because I find it a bit of a hassle and I figure the calorie from these two items won’t be substantial since the Daily Cut does not give a lot of crumbs and sauce. But if you’d like to include them in measurement, maybe it’s gonna be another 50 cal, tops?

With that taken into consideration, total calorie from my order will come at 412 cal.

To be honest with you, I’m kinda surprised with this calculation because I expect my order to reach 500 cal. I wonder if we can treat the petite bowl of the Daily Cut to be around 500 cal max. Maybe I should measure it again when I order brown rice or whole wheat pasta as base.

Singapore Food Log: Group Therapy Cafe, Tanjong Pagar

Group Therapy Duxton in Tanjong Pagar Singapore

Group Therapy Cafe in Tanjong Pagar Duxton

Coffee from Group Therapy Cafe Tanjong Pagar

French toast from Group Therapy Cafe Tanjong Pagar

Scrambled egg croissant from Group Therapy Cafe

Café is one of the best places to have a catch up talk with high school buddy. After all, you have not met them for so long and you surely have many things to talk about. However, although there are so many cafes in Singapore, the food that each café offers does not really differ from one to another. This kinda making cafehopping in this tiny island kinda boring. But then again, we should try to have a catch-up meeting at new café once in a while. So this time, we pick Group Therapy Café in Tanjong Pagar as our catch-up venue.

The café is housed on the second storey of a conserved shophouse in Tanjong Pagar area. You will the signboard of the café on the first floor though so you will not miss it. We did not make reservation but the café is moderately crowded on Sunday morning. So we managed to get a table for the three of us before making prior reservation. Group Therapy Café serves many egg-based brunch items like egg benedict, croquet monsieur, etc. However, I was not in the eggcited mode for egg (pardon the lame pun) so I ordered something sweet instead, French Toast. My friend ordered scrambled egg which came with a sausage and croissant. It was pretty good. However, I still prefer the French Toast. A note before you order the French Toast though, since it comes with ice cream, I would think it’s best to share the French Toast with your dining buddy.

How about the coffee? I found out that Chai latte is not actually considered coffee when I look at the menu. This is because Group Therapy Café lists Chai latte as one of their non-caffeine items. Oh gosh, am I really a coffee drinker? Hahaha. But anyway, their seven spiced chai latte (is it really 7?) taste so good and it’s not easy to find good spiced chai latte in Singapore to yupz, I’m happy. My friend mixed up my chai latte for her normal flat white and she was perplexed for a seconds, “How come my drink taste like spice?”. Make sure you don’t mix up the cup before drinking, peeps.

The café closes pretty early on 6PM though I would say. But I guess Tanjong Pagar crowd is mainly office peeps and the area is not so crowded on weekends. Maybe that’s why the café closes early.

Takeaway Review: Onigiri and Potato Salad, Don Don Donki

Takomeshi and potato salad from Don Don Donki

Aigoo we are back to the dreadful Monday but I suppose today is not so bad. It’s just world cup has just ended the night before and it is kinda empty not to have a football match to watch after work. But human must be adaptable to life and when one entertainment is gone, one must find another source of entertainment. Since I had nothing else planned tonight, I went to Don Don Donki at 100AM after work to check what kind of food I could buy for takeaway.

I was only looking at the small food items because my calorie counter app seemed to suggest that I only have 200 kcal left for today. Oh my gawd, what am I supposed to eat? Air? But anyway, I have a lot of determination to lose weight so I’m just gonna stick with onigiri. To my amazement, Don Don Donki have a quite interesting selection of onigiri and the price tag for these onigiris are somewhat friendly. Mostly are below 3SGD (which is the normal price for onigiri sold at Samurice).

I have never seen takomeshi onigiri before so I quickly got my hand on one of this octopus rice ball. I suppose it will be something like the filling of takoyaki but it’s inside rice ball? Well, basically that’s how it looks like although interestingly the rice used for takomeshi is brown, not the usual white rice. I wonder how did they season the rice. Maybe with tea? Hahaha. Anyway, it tastes pretty good and I could find few bits of octopus meat inside the rice ball.

Being easily lured by fried stuff, I nearly bought fried chicken to be honest with you. But I put myself under restraining order and opted for potato salad instead. The portion of the potato salad is not big but it costs SGD 1.90 so I guess I could not really complain. Obviously while my ideal plan of dinner consists of these two items only, I ended up entering starvation mode and devoured some guavas, grapes and nearly a bag of potato chips. What? Please don’t tell me they are not real potatoes. Lalala~

Everytime I feel a bit down, I have the urge to write. It does not have to be something deep but I suppose I just to release my meh feeling into other kind of form. Probably one of the biggest culprit for my under-the-weather mood is the fact that I’ve gained weight. That and the fact that the weather is kinda chilling today with the long and heavy shower of waters from the sky. While soup is probably the best choice for dinner, I ended up going for cold theme at The Autobus.

Singapore Eats: The Autobus, Downtown Gallery

The first time my friend asked me to have lunch at the Autobus, I thought he was referring to one of the Transformers’ name. But after confirming that there’s no Transformer called Autobus (via the internet), I found out that the Autobus is a bicycle cafe at the entrance of Downtown Gallery (the entrance nearest to the direction of Tanjong Pagar MRT).

The Autobus at Downtown Gallery Singapore

Although the Autobus probably serves brunch items on weekend, it offers salad/protein bowl on weekdays. If you ask me, the concept is a bit similar to the Daily Cut (and those healthy joints popping up across the CBD area of Singapore). The drill is the same, pick up a pencil/ pen and the order chit and start ticking away your selected items based on preferred size. The cheapest bowl at the Autobus starts from SGD 10 but currently there is a promotional voucher that you can buy from Fave (you need to install the app to use the voucher). The voucher let you spend SGD 7.50 for SGD 10 worth. Not bad, I love discount no matter how small it is.

While a lot of people are raving about the Daily Cut, I have only seen brussels sprouts offered on the ordering chit in the Autobus. I was surprised I fell in love with this one funky vegetable. Love works in a mysterious way I suppose. The cajun chicken which I pick goes well with the soy sesame sauce, brussels sprouts, edamame and the hidden brown rice underneath the whole other items.

Cajun chicken salad bowl from the Autobus

I think the bowl served at the Autobus is pretty good although some people may prefer the Daily Cut. At least, the queue line at the Autobus is less daunting, especially for people like me who don’t really like to queue. Oh gosh, how am I gonna survive in let’s say, Japan, the land of orderly Q.

The Autobus is located at level one of the Downtown Gallery and it opens from 8AM to 9PM daily except for Sunday.

If you happen to stay around Tanjong Pagar area in Singapore (check out the 10 best hotels in Tanjong Pagar) either for business or pleasure and you are looking for a quaint cafe to relax for a while around 8-ish in the evening, well, you can probably only come to Flor Patisserie in Duxton Hill. It happened to us before, we just had our dinner at Violet Herbs in Tras Link and we wanted to continue our talk in a cafe. But somehow most cafes located in Tanjong Pagar close at 6PM. Even on Saturday. Thankfully, Flor Patisserie opens until 10PM. And to cut story short, here is where we spent the rest of the night talking about our lives. Hahaha.

There are a lot of paintings sold at Flor Patisserie. The paintings though...all depicts human and somehow I feel like we are being watched while we are eating and drinking. Oh well, it's all in your mind...it's all in your mind...

Paintings at Flor Patisserie at Duxton Hill

Our companion for the long chat that night. From top left clockwise, a cup of hot cocoa, a glass of blueberry latte, a maple cheese tart, and a slice of strawberry souffle. The blueberry latte does not taste sweet but I can't really feel the taste of the coffee. The effect that night though...shows that it is indeed a latte because I could not sleep until 2AM.

Cakes and Coffees at Flor Patisserie Duxton Hill

We were engrossed in deep chat up to the point we did not remember to take individual shot of the cakes that we ordered. Oh well, thanks goodness for Google. Flor Patisserie has various flavors for its cheesetarts. There are original, maple, and green tea. The lady behind the counter recommended maple cheese tart so we ordered one for sharing. The maple filling can be tasted without being too sweet. Overall a nice cheese tart to eat.

Maple Cheese Tart at Flor Patisserie Duxton

The Strawberry Souffle taste pretty much similar to its sister, Strawberry Shortcake. The sponges taste fluffy and light (just like any Japanese cakes). The berries are kinda sour so you should eat them together with the cake and cream. If you like Japanese version of cakes, you will enjoy this cake.

Strawberry Souffle at Flor Patisserie Duxton

When we reached Flor Patisserie around 8+, the remaining cakes at the display counter are limited so if you'd like to see more choices, make sure you come earlier during the day as they are very popular amongst the local.

This year, I will be celebrating my birthday by vacationing. Yeay! Sadly, I won't be able to celebrate it together with my bestie because she's going to travel with her sister at the same time. So after reading the online review on Violet Herbs, the so-called affordable fine dining place in Tanjong Pagar area, we decided to give it a try for my pre-birthday dinner (Are we allowed to celebrate birthday in advance, btw?). The restaurant is located along the shophouses at Tras Street in Tanjong Pagar. I seldom go to this area and the area turns out to be quite hipster. There are a lot of pubs and restaurants which open at night offering both casual and fine dining. If you are looking for a hotel to spend the night in this area, you may consider staying at Orchid Hotel or Amara Hotel as both hotels are located pretty nearby.

The older I've become, I prefer a quiet little celebration with those closest people that I love. I guess you really lose interest in celebrating birthday with a bang since you are getting...older too. Anyway, we decided to go the pasta route and we ordered one pasta each. A complimentary appetiser is provided on the house. It looks quite interesting on the plate. The green cream is actually butter (which I initially thought was wasabi). The ball which looks like medium-sized potato is actually toasted bread while the gooey thing on the spoon is raw salmon in tartar sauce. The taste of the appetiser is not bad and the bread is served warm, right after toasting. Yum!

Complimentary appetiser at Violet Herbs Tanjong Pagar

When the first plate of pasta came to our table, we were kinda confused because we did not remember ordering something black to come with our pasta. Turns out this is the rendition of Violet Herbs of Carbonara pasta. The black crackers are made from squid ink. The crackers taste not bad but you must eat them fast because they become soggy in a short time. The carbonara are in the al-dente side and it taste so-so for me.

The next pasta is called Angel Hair Pasta and it is served with a generous amount of sakura ebi. I wish Violet Herbs can be more generous with their pasta portion. The concept of fine dining is always tricky for me, is the portion supposed to be small?

Portion aside, this Angel Hair Pasta served by Violet Herbs taste very nice. The spiciness level is just right without being too overwhelming and the texture of the pasta is on the chewy side, which I like.

Closer look of angel hair pasta at Violet Herbs

If you'd like to go for their main course, their miso cod is getting a lot of good raving from diners. So you can probably go for that. Make sure to take a walk around Duxton area after your dinner to enjoy the rest of the night.