Artichoke Cafe & Bar + Overdoughs

hihi!! another place that i've been wanting to visit since forever. more specifically, since about 2 years ago when i popped by this place as one of those in the list for Gourmet Club's food guide to eating places around school. now that was such a long time ago. i had so much fun helping out with that publication :) anyway, the last time i went there, i didn't get to try any food, but everything looked so good that i vowed to come back. and i finally did, two years later. gosh. and i'm so glad to announce that it hasn't disappointed at all! ^^

artichoke's brunch menu is a pretty short one, but what makes it so special is its middle eastern influences. now, where else can you find a middle eastern brunch? in singapore, it ain't easy to find one. okay perhaps you can find it at Wild Honey, but i do find that place slightly overrated. anyway, back to our breakfast...

possibly our favourite of the lot had to be the Brunch Mezze ($26). it actually refers to a selection of little things, which i believe changes on a regular basis as you have to refer to a blackboard for the description. not sure whether the price changes accordingly as well. our Mezze consisted of a chickpea and sesame hummus, tzaziki of beetroot with pistachio dukka, terrine of smoked chicken, picked white anchovies and tomatoes, turkish spring cheese, mixed pickles and za'atar toast. now doesn't that sound scrumptious! loved the hummus, which released the essences of middle eastern flavours into our mouths and went perfectly with the toast. the cheeses too, were delicious when paired with the toast. have i mentioned how much i LOVE middle eastern breads? they are always flavoured with incredible spices that make them so tasty on their own, and they go with practically anything on the platter!

the lamb shakshouka ($25) is one of the most popular items on the menu, and even though i don't really eat lamb, i have to say that this was one tasty dish! i was totally drawn by the two runny eggs sizzled in spiced tomato sauce with kashkaval cheese and lamb, with pistachio dukka. and guess what, more toast! dipping the toast into this sizzling mess was simply divine.

a slightly less middle eastern-ish dish we had was the sweet potato and bacon hash ($23) and it was so so so amazingly delicious! gosh, it is actually impossible for me to pick a favourite dish from this place because i enjoyed everything so much! this looks pretty similar to a typical brunch dish, but it really isn't. the bacon was super interesting - my first time ever seeing thick cut bacon, and it was delightfully bouncy and oozed just the right amount of fats to make it juicy, yet not feel too sinful. the sweet potatoes were fried to perfection and this was all topped with sunny side up eggs, and toast with Jim Beam bourbon butter. mouth-watering? you bet it was!

in contrast, the most middle eastern dish we had was the Ful medames ($17), which was an aromatic, hearty egyptian fava bean stew with a dollop of soft egg in the midst of it (i do love their eggs so much too!), with toast to go along with it. again, it was just so gratifying to mop up all the goodness with the delicious slices of toast. so satisfying.

and as if we hadn't had enough, we ordered dessert!! Overdoughs is the sister bakery of Artichoke, and it's located right at the entrance of the restaurant. now look at that picture. this was on display. how on earth could we resist it??!! i was completely stuffed by this point, but being greedy as usual, i helped us order not just one, but TWO desserts :p well my "saving grace" was that i knew mummy would definitely prefer the other dessert, while i was sure we would all like this one, so we had to get both, didn't we? haha. this was a gorgeous oreo cheesecake block with cookie dough, marshmallow and caramel ($4.80). like i said, impossible to resist. it was every bit like the description. luscious and rich, it screamed "eat me!!" and we devoured it within five minutes.

our other dessert, cashew cranberry slice with rose cream ($3.60) sounded so pretty! bathed in a perfume of rose, we ate this dessert daintily (contrasting with our barbaric attack on the former), and we were rewarded with the combination of sweet essences spreading through our mouths. such a happy dessert! :) we loved it so much. 

this has got to be one of my most satisfying brunches ever, and a unique one too! hopefully i'll be back to try their dinner sometime ;)

Artichoke Cafe & Bar

161 Middle Road

Tel.: +65 6336 6949

Tue-Fri 6.30pm-9.45pm

Sat 11.30am-2.45pm, 6.30pm-9.45pm

Sun 11.30am-2.45pm

Common Man Coffee Roasters

why, hello there! (: 

Common Man Coffee Roasters has got to be one of the hottest brunch spots since it opened a couple of months back, and i'm glad to have snagged a seat here. perks of being an early bird - this cafe opens its doors from 8am daily, so there's a good reason for you to get up early for a hearty breakfast! the prices, as you may have heard, are probably beyond what you'd think a "common man" should pay, but being a collaboration between 40 hands' owner/barista, Australia's Five Senses Coffee and under the Spa Esprit Group's management, you can be sure of the quality of food, and of course, top-notch coffee. okay, i have to concede that i'm not a coffee drinker (i do feel it's a pity sometimes, with all these fantastic coffee joints popping up all over the place, but i still prefer my sleep more :p), but i can guarantee that i felt the food was awesome. and it's not everywhere that you can get a Middle-Eastern brunch (the other would be Artichoke, and i apologise that this post will only be posted in a couple of months time! :X but good things are worth waiting for right?), so i would say the premium you pay is well worth your buck.

there are several must-tries at CMCR, and the Turkish Common Man Breakfast ($25) is one of them. a hearty serving of goodness on a plate, and i hardly know where to start! the pyllo-wrapped soft boiled organic egg was the pièce de résistance with its crisp bird's nest structured art encasing a delectable egg, which spilled a gorgeous runny yolk. the fresh cucumber and tomatoes lived up to their claim perfectly, with the tomatoes absolutely reminding me of those i had in italy! mind you, i've hadn't had such wonderful tomatoes since i got back to singapore (i wonder where they bought these tomatoes from!! i want them too!!). the crispy feta had a sharp savoury flavour, and it came perched atop a lovely bed of hummus. with fluffy pita bread to seal the deal, this was a dish to-die-for. 

now, i'd come here not wanting to eat eggs benedict initially, because i'd been having consecutively for quite a few sundays (i'm a big fan). but when i saw the description "tender braised ox cheeks", i just had to order it. *shrugs* i'm just greedy like that :p haha. and i was rewarded with this delicious goodness of Organic Eggs Benedict, which is no doubt more pricey than many other places at a whopping $24, but so absolutely worth it :D look at that flowy yolk!!! i have a thing for flowy yolks. in eggs benedict, in ramen, in custard buns (kinda). you name it, i love it ;) the chive hollandaise was an interesting twist on the sauce, and i liked how it lent an extra herb-y aroma to this dish. i sank my teeth into the incredibly tender ox cheeks that sat on artisanal sourdough toast and...my life is complete :) haha. you must order this too!!

the Common Man Full Veggie Breakfast ($24) in no way pales in comparison to the rest. despite the lack of meat, this is a suitably substantial dish that will satisfy you immensely. two free-range eggs in any style you like, halloumi, spinach (beautifully done, i was so amazed at how they made it so tasty!), mushrooms sauteed with garlic that were super fragrant, avocados and artisanal sourdough bread. 

the Common Man Full Breakfast ($26) is for any greedy soul who wants everything on the menu! or for someone who can't make up their mind. basically it's everything on the previous dish, with chorizo hash browns (i found this to be a very interesting update of the hashbrowns one might be accustomed to), pork canneillini beans (also very tasty with the various spices infused in it), crisp bacon and sausage.

so..i don't drink coffee, but i felt their hot chocolate ($6) was very well done! with its full body and rich aroma, this is definitely one of the better chocolates i've had! (:

in conclusion, other than the prices that are slightly steeper than normal, this place is awesome for brunch!

Common Man Coffee Roasters
22 Martin Road
 Tel.: +65 6836 4695
Daily 8am-7pm

Mamounia Restaurant

Stepping into Mamounia Restaurant, one feels as if they have been transported into the world of Aladdin, with genies, flying carpets and magic lamps. Decked in opulent fabrics and furnishings, the restaurant is luxuriously cosy, with rich colours and warm lighting that invites you in. We sank into the plush seats and opened the menu, excited by the prospect of an exotic exploration of our taste buds. 

A complimentary plate of crispy thin breadsticks was served to whet our appetite for the sumptuous dinner ahead.

For starters, they have the Maghreb platter and Fertile Crescent platter. The platters are meant for one person each, but of course, who’s to say that you can’t share? The vast variety of choices at Mamounia renders it practically impossible to try everything, but the platters are a great opportunity for you to have a taste of what this place has to offer. Embark on a culinary journey through the Middle East by trying a little of everything, and discover the gems hidden within each dish. The highlight of the Maghreb platter is the chicken bas’tilla – chicken braised till tender in a coriander leaf with allspice and ground ginger, shredded, and wrapped in a delicate filo pastry with an egg custard and delicious almond filling. Lamb is pretty much a staple in the Middle East, and you have got to try the lamb merguez, which is lovingly constructed from home-made ingredients and spices including harissa, fennel and cumin seeds. The Fertile Crescent platter showcases several mouth-watering dips which we particularly enjoyed. The muhammara is a walnut dip consisting of walnuts, pine nuts, charred red pepper and pomegranate molasses. Nutty with a tinge of spiciness, this is one dip that will go down well with everybody. If you like your food a little sour, try the labne. With its tart acidity, it complements the buttered naans on the side perfectly.

Mamounia offers a wide range of succulent grilled meats, and if you can’t decide which to order, we invite you to try the mixed kebab platter for two people. It gives you a good coverage of the restaurant’s most popular dishes – lamb kefta, harissa chicken, beef kebab and jumbo prawn, with butter naan, herbed couscous and vegetable shashlik on the side. The harissa chicken is cooked to a softly balanced texture, with juicy aromatic flavours of harissa salsa, pickled onion and coriander. The beef kebab is made using beef ribeye, cut into cubes and marinated with garlic, Turkish chilli flakes and ground spices. The accompaniments too, shone in their own way. Epitomizing the personality of Middle Eastern cuisine, the herbed couscous was richly flavoured in a fusion of spices that tantalized our taste buds.

Do save some space for dessert as well! The warm valrhona chocolate cake is an absolute delight. Made from 55% cocoa, the cake is dense, yet fluffy; the outside cooked and slightly burnished, while the inside is a melted warm chocolate mixture. A contradiction – which makes it inconsistently flawless.

I particularly enjoyed the Salted nuts in Katafi pastry, which is a shredded filo pastry that has an appearance likened to bird's nest, encasing a variety of nuts such as cashews, pistachios and walnuts. drizzled with honey thyme syrup and with vanilla ice cream on the side, this was the perfect dish to end our meal.

*This is an article i wrote for reserveit.sg (: Try out their online reservation service, and you can check out more articles there!

Mamounia Restaurant

12 Ann Siang Road

Tel.: +65 6221 1694

Mon-Thu: 12pm-11pm

Fri: 12pm-12am

Sat: 5pm-12 am

Closed Sundays

Alaturka Turkish & Mediterranean Restaurant

so funny. mummy got into an 'exotic food' excitement over the weekend. haha usually i'm the one suggesting all the new places to eat, but this time she was so excited about this place after reading it on yahoo news or something. lol! and turns out it was really popular! it's like this place on arab street or somewhere in that area (so close to haji lane omg!!!!! i can't believe i still have not shopped there before. yeah, sad right!). it's quite interesting, cos we kinda hardly go to that area, so it felt like we werent in singapore haha. and the restaurant was surprisingly popular! granted, it's a small restaurant, but we went there pretty early, and they told us that all the tables were reserved already! :O omg. but they suggested that we sit at their neighbours' table and order drinks from them haha. such a good way to give each other business :P

we started off our meal with the meze tabagi ($21), which was an assorted platter of their cold appetizers: hummus, babakanus, saksuka, patlican salata, ezme, potato salad and dolma. i really liked the hummus, which is a middle eastern mashed chickpea and sesame oil dip. the best way i can describe it would be that it tasted like mashed papadum! haha. it was nice! and i also liked the reddish thing at the top left of the plate, i think it should be the saksuka, which is deep fried diced eggplant in tomato based sauce. babakanus is roasted eggplant with yogurt and garlic dip which was rather yummy too with its creamy texture (: the dolma is rice with traditional spices wrapped in vine leaves - this one was really cute and unfortunately there were only two pieces so we each only had a little bit! hmm come to think of it, i wonder whether the vine leaves were meant to be eaten? i just popped the entire thing into my mouth! :P lol! i felt that the others were not as exciting in comparison.

the best part was that it came with this wonderfully ginormous lavash bread, which is kinda like a flat bread that is expanded to this side (inside is all air such that when you pluck of a bit, the whole thing just deflates) and it is piping hot inside!! :D ooh lovely. i really love all these turkish breads xD

the tavuk sis ($17) was grilled chicken chunks on a skewer (its completely obscured by the pilaf rice and veggies in the picture). it had a lovely smokey chargrilled flavour that was delicious. and i loved the rice for the exotic spices and the vegetables had an interesting sauce on it too (which i was unable to pinpoint).

the salmon steak ($18) was probably the least-turkish dish which we had. it was chargrilled and topped with a homemade sauce, but perhaps because there was very little sauce, it just tasted like salmon steak we could eat anywhere else.

i have to say this again. I LOVE TURKISH BREAD. really i do. i loved the sucuklu pide ($16) which was a turkish pizza stuffed with traditional turkish sundried salami and cheese. omgosh it was absolutely lovelyyyyy! the bread had a nice soft texture and i just loved the blend of cheese, egg and salami. :D

lastly, we had the tavuk sote ($16) which was a casserole style chicken dish with mushrooms and onions. and i can't believe this, but i forgot to take a photo of it!!!!!! WAHHHHHHHHHHHH OMG. unbelievable. i only realised this after the food was all gone!!! boohoo :( cos there was some sort of commotion because they served us the wrong dish and after that i kinda forgot about taking a photo. argh. it was quite a nice dish, with a lovely tomato-based sauce.

yupps. interesting cuisine! (: remember to make reservations for this restaurant!

Alaturka Turkish & Mediterranean Restaurant

16 Bussorah Street

Tel.: +65 6294 0304

Daily 11am-11pm

Sofra

i can't really distinguish all the middle eastern cuisines like turkish, lebanese...uh i have no idea! O.O haha. it all sounds really exotic.

sofra is really one of the first few middle eastern eateries i've ever visited. it's located in this super ulu shopping mall called shaw towers. i didn't even know this mall existed, even though it's pretty near school. don't confuse it with shaw centre which is along orchard road. shaw towers is at beach road. apparently it was not as ulu as i thought though, because there were some eating outlets such as this thai restaurant which seemed really popular! the queue was awfully long :O maybe i should try it someday. and there is tom's palette there!!!!!! :D finally i had the chance to try that out too, even though i was really full after my turkish meal. anyway, that is another post ;) okay, down to the real stuff! ;) photos are from christine again, one of my gourmet buddies (:

we started with a salad which i didn't really like :P it was too raw and full of capsicum which i wasn't really my taste. but it was a healthy start to the meal! (:

then we had red lentil soup which i really liked!!!! (: this was a somewhat controversial dish, which some people (like me) absolutely loved, but there were others who didn't agree. it was thick and slightly chunky - i loved the bean-y taste of it! even better, it came with turkish bread which everyone swooned over. it was really yummy! simple and tasty, this was such a homely dish.

we had two kinds of kebabs to share - the shish kebab and beyti kebab.

we had a mix of chicken and beef on skewers, marinated with turkish spices and grilled nicely. it came with a mountain of veggies and rice which i really liked! i never thought i would like chickpeas (somehow i just had the impression that it wasn't nice), but i was proven wrong! they're really yummy! they introduced a new dimension to the rice and its taste balanced out the flavours of the spiced rice nicely.

i would say that the beyti kebab was my favourite dish of the day (: it was lamb and chicken meat wrapped in turkist flat bread, and drenched in a lovely tomato-based sauce. i just loved the sauciness of the dish i guess! haha. and the bread. awesome. turkish bread is really awesome.

we also had turkish pizza! but i don't have a photo of that :( it was really yummy though! somehow that day all the breads were so tasty that i just ate all of it, even though it came with lamb which i really dislike. haha ;)

we ordered the Sofra Fish as well, but this was something i didn't really like cos the first bite i took, the fish tasted really fishy >.< and i didn't really like the spices of this dish either. so yup, not something i liked.

the dessert was gorgeous though. *squeals!!!!* a tiny little square piece of saccharine sweetness encased in a crispy flaky pastry. (:

the owner/manager was a really nice turkish guy with a super cute accent! haha! :D after our meal, he told us more about turkish food and obliged to taking a photo with all of us (:

Sofra Turkish Restaurant & Cafe

100 Beach Road

Shaw Towers #02-42

Tel.: +65 6291 1433

Daily 12pm-9.30pm