Selfish Gene Cafe

Date: 14 June 2012

Address: 40 Craig Road 

Opening hours: 10am - 6pm, Closed on Tuesdays

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

Website: Selfish Gene Cafe

Met up with a food blogger, one who's more experienced. Do visit his site for more reviews! He puts in alot of hard work and his sincerity shows through his posts. 

Roast Beef Sandwich - S$12.80 

Sundried tomato bread with roast beef, onions and veg. I quite liked it though i think we took too long so the taste was compromised. The bread was already cold by the time i bit into it but oh well. Will just have to learn how to take a good shot in half the time. There was nothing special about this sandwich though. What I would suggest is maybe a side of fries to complete it? There just seemed to be something missing. 

I preferred the toast to my ciabatta cos it was softer (Then again i let mine get cold). Once again, i didn't think there wasn't anything to shout about regarding the Scrambled eggs and Brioche - S$10.80 

Banana cake with caramelized banana, crumble and peanut butter sauce. - S$5.80 

I don't like peanut butter so I didn't have much of this. But if you're a fan of peanut butter, I can imagine you'd devour this in a second. The banana cake was sweet and light, didn't taste too oily and I particularly thought the crumble was interesting. Didn't figure out what it was but it gave a nice texture to the cake. 

Perhaps i will try other desserts next time. 

We had a little chat with the conversational owner, Gene who explained why he chose "selfish gene" for the name. Apparently, "Selfish" should be taken more as "Self-ish" meaning that while he(as a self) delights in doing what he pleases (making food for us) and we (as individual selves) delight in spending time with our friends/family in his cafe. 

It took a while for my mind to grapple around that theory but i THINK i'm coming to terms with it. 

His other explanation made more sense. That in helping others, sometimes, we are more concerned with how it'll affect us. So perhaps, we should start thinking how to be more self-less and REALLY put others first without considering the consequences on ourselves. 

ALL THIS PHILOSOPHICAL TALK has made me extremely hungry so I will have some thai food for dinner haha. 

Though the food is not of any extraordinary standard, the warm service and the comfortable setting make a trip to this place worthy and pleasing. 

The Plain

Date: 12 June 2012

Address: 50 Craig Road

Opening Hours: 7:30am - 7:30pm

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

Website: The Plain

I'm trying to visit as many places as I can in the tanjong pagar/duxton/ann siang area and I know "The Plain" is one not to be missed. 

After a short 7 minutes walk from the train station, my friend and I arrive at the cafe, sweaty and hungry. 

The rectangular sized space boasts of high ceilings and a cosy setting. 

The moment we stepped in, welcome greetings met us and a nice friendly waitress sat us down. 

I've heard this was a melbourne-based establishment so I wasn't surprised to see vegemite toast on the menu.  I can't stand vegemite so i limited myself to the items I could try. 

Salami Ciabatta - S$8.90 

This surprised me because there was sweet chilli in it. I'm not sure if i'm all for it, but it didn't taste too bad so i'm not complaining. 

The roma tomatoes were AMAZING. I think the roma tomatoes made what could have been an average ciabatta into a mouth watering one. I would have liked more rocket though. 

Having said that, the beef pastrami ciabatta ( also $8.90 ) paled in comparison.

For some reason, the bread wasn't as crispy and well toasted as the salami one. This one was too hard and almost impossible to bite through. The sundried tomatoes failed to impress after being outshined by the roma tomatoes. Netiher of us finished our half.

 Once again, the roma tomatoes made the Darling's eggs ( S$6.50 ) a tantalizing rendition of poached eggs on sourdough toast. 

Instead of using hollandaise, they use melted cheese. Instead of salmon like the one in Group therapy's poached eggs, they use ham. 

If given a choice, I would combine both cafes' poached eggs to create my idea of perfect poached eggs - a thick slice of sourdough toast with roma tomatoes, a small portion of hollandaise sauce with poached eggs on top, garnished with black pepper.

Our waitress recommended we try the Summer blue iced tea - S$5.50 so we did.

The recipe included Gryphon english breakfast tea with lychees and mint leaves. 

It was refreshing and something new, mixing fruits with tea. 

I've read about how messy the billing system is but we had no problem when we asked for the bill. 

The waitress who attended to us simply told the cashier what we ordered and we were politely told to pay at the counter. I do understand how it can get disorganized if it were a busy day and the waitresses aren't free to cater to each specific order. 

But if they say this is the way the people in Melbourne roll, who are we to criticize? 

All I need is reasonably priced good food, smiles from friendly staff and aircon (Singapore is too humid for me to enjoy my food in alfresco dining areas). 

Group Therapy

Date: 12 June 2012

Address: 49 Duxton Road 

Opening hours: Tues - Thurs: 11am - 6pm , Fri -Sat : 11am - 11pm , Sunday: 9am - 6pm

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar 

 Having a nice brunch at The Plain with my friend, the Topshopper, we chanced upon the famous Group Therapy. For a weekday, I was surprised at how packed it was, especially when it was already 2pm. 

 We got the dry apple cider to share. (S$12) 

I don't know if it was cos it's "Dry" but i didn't really like it. Tasted too much like beer. I prefer the pear cider I had at Heart of House.

We had planned to only have a drink, but on the table beside us sat an outrageously tempting plate of poached eggs. Having very weak resistance to good looking food, we caved in and ordered a plate. 

For S$15, it was a reasonable portion given it had a generous portion of salmon. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the crispiness of the thick toast. 

I'm still not sure if it was because I was already full from the earlier brunch, or if the sauce was just too much to handle. The thick layer of hollandaise over the surface of everything was overwhelming, i had to scrap scoops of it away before I could stomach a few more bites. 

I think if they gave less sauce it would have been perfect. 

I like the ambience here though, it has a non-pretentious atmosphere and amicable staff. I would definitely want to come back and try the other items on the menu. It's strange that they have paper menus cos it seems abit too damageable and hard to maintain. I hope they don't print tons of it to replace the dirty ones cos that would be highly un-environmentally friendly. 

A queer thing we encounter would be them charging a dollar for ice. 

Many places charge their patrons for water, but charging for ice? That's a first i've seen. 

I don't quite understand the rationale behind that (no ice machine?) but it can be quite a turn off for certain patrons. It almost was for me, if not for the apologetic look on the waitress's face. 

All in all, group therapy cafe is worth a try and i hope to be better impressed the next time I visit. 

Ko Ryo Jeong

Date: 25th May 2012

Address: 10 Anson Road, #02-59 International Plaza

Opening hours: Mon-Sat 1-3pm, 6-10pm, Closed on Sundays

Nearest MRT: Tanjong Pagar 

I've read a few reviews on how this place serves authentic korean food. I can't give the same response because I haven't had authentic korean food yet, so i'll just tell you what i thought of it based on the other korean restaurants i've tried. 

On first glance of the menu, it looked like the ones at kopitiam, just that the prices were double of theirs. I can assure you the taste of the food offered here is much better than the food the kopitiam stalls serve so I guess it was worth every extra dollar eating here. 

The decor is simple, nothing extravagant, service is warm and helpful. 

BBQ Beef - S$17

Compared to the S$7 ones in kopitiam, this plate of beef was definitely much more tender and less salty. It was basically kopitiam beef but much better because it was well balanced. The beef was drenched in a thick gravy with an assortment of long beans, carrots and onions. 

Beef Rice - S$16 

The beef here tasted about the same to me, except maybe less salty and slightly more chewy. i'm not sure if the beef is the same kind of beef as the previous dish though. Anyway, this was quite average to me, mushrooms were good though. (But how hard is it to go wrong with mushrooms?) 

This was my Traditional Mix Rice Bi Bim Bab and I LOVED it. S$16

The rice was out-of-the-world fragrant and soft, yet not too moist, which was perfect to me. 

I think the stone bowl keeps everything warm so the rice was kept warm till the very last bite. 

The other ingredients blended together to become this synchronized fusion of crunchy-soft, bland-salty mixture. This was kind of like comfort food - simple ingredients cooked well individually to contribute in creating a warm and inviting dish. 

Kim Chi Stew - S$14 

This thick broth of kim chi was mildly spicy and sweet. I still prefer eating kim chi to drinking it but this was a nice change. 

Pancakes - S$16.50. I was afraid this would be too oily but it didn't turn out to be. The pancakes were very tasty, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. It comes with a sauce you dip in which tasted rather bland and slightly salty but yeah they complement each other. The pancakes are light on the taste buds and have a chewy tangy texture to it. 

Good, authentic korean food can be really expensive in Singapore so this place is commendable because it offers a reasonably priced menu without compromising the quality of the food. There is a large seating area so you can come with family or a big group of friends. 

PS : I don't know how authentic the korean food is but there is a very cute and friendly authentic korean waiter working there ;) (hehe)