If you’re living in the Serangoon area, you may be delighted to know that Sun Ray Cafe there welcomes furry guests. Although I presently do not own a dog or a cat, I can well sympathise with pet owners who find it really difficult to travel around with their pets in Singapore, much less find a place to dine with them. While I was in France last week, I was amazed to know that dogs are pretty much allowed anywhere! In the TGV train ride from Lyon to Paris, a dog was snoozing on the train table diagonally from me! No need to leash your dog or hide it in a doggie carrier! I don’t think we’ll be seeing that fairly soon in Singapore, but at least the pet-cafe scene seems to be hotting up.
A doggie perusing the daily specials while propping up the owner’s iPad.
At first glance, Sun Ray Cafe may not look like the typical place to get good 3rd wave coffee. After all, when the place was furnished a few years ago, Sun Ray’s focus was more on food. Now that they’ve gotten the food aspect on cruise control, their next goal is to get the word out that great coffee can be synonymous with Sun Ray Cafe.
In terms of certifications, they have it all as you can see from the picture above. That’s Dave Lim, the owner of Sun Ray Cafe.
Yes… the name is weird for a cafe I know, but apparently this is the British version of Scissors Paper Stone. Here’s how it’s played:
Gun wins over Rabbit : Gun shoots Rabbit
Rabbit wins over Carrot : Rabbit eats Carrot
Carrot wins over Gun : Carrot can be stuffed into the Gun
So my question is…why can’t the Carrot win over the Rabbit by stuffing it up the Rabbit’s….
Okay I’ll be good, won’t go down that road…
Easties rejoice, for we now have another cafe in the Eastern part of Singapore. Rabbit Carrot Gun is along East Coast Road, you know the row of shop houses directly opposite 112 Katong Mall. When I was there a month back, they were still in the midst of renovating the next door unit to turn it into a British Pub. I should return to check it out again.
As for Rabbit Carrot Gun itself, the food is British inspired, because the owner is from the UK. I was there only for brunch on the weekend, so I didn’t get to peruse the main menu, but I think there are a lot of interesting items. The brunch menu is unfortunately, extremely limited. If you’re not the muesli, then there’s basically only the big breakfast or the eggs benedict in several ways. This is what we had.
My father as usual had the eggs florentine, which is poached eggs served on a bed of spinach served with homemade hollandaise sauce. As he almost always chooses eggs benedict/eggs florentine at all the brunch places we go to, he is the expert when it comes to eggs benedict. The portion at Rabbit Carrot Gun was a little on the small side for the price. Also, the bread base looked rather plain, as compared to the homemade bread types or brioche that you can get elsewhere. The eggs florentine tasted quite okay, not too bad, but certainly not something you would be keen to return in a hurry. I suppose this would be good for people who like their eggs benedict mild, and not covered in a ton of buttery hollandaise sauce.
Game Keepers Shooting Breakfast – Scrambled or Fried Eggs with Crispy Bacon, Fine English Pork Sausage, Sautéed Mushrooms & Grilled Tomatoes Served with Fresh Toast
This was my 2nd visit to Spruce, but first visit to it’s Upper Bukit Timah Firestation outlet. My 1st visit was to the Spruce at Phoenix Park near town. As usual, I decided to sit al-fresco to avoid the air-conditioning. Also, it was drizzling slightly that day, and it was just a delight to be sitting facing the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve that was shrouded in a slight haze. Living in the Eastern part of Singapore, which is bereft of Nature Reserves, I often feel, or try to feel like I’m not really in Singapore when I see so much trees!
We had gone to visit a photographer in Choa Chu Kang, and were famished by the time we got out. I didn’t actually have a clue as to where to eat, but thankfully, when we drove past the Firestation, I remembered Spruce was in there and we turned in.
Eggs Benny (Corn Waffle, Back Bacon and Hollandaise Sauce) $15
The most vegetarian option as usual, this was ordered by my father. They so kindly switched the corn waffle with brioche toast, and the back bacon with slices of avocado! An extremely healthy dish, unlike what I ordered…. Love the contrast between the feta cheese and tomatoes!
Spruce Big Brekkie (eggs, Bacon, German Sausage, Roasted Tomato, Roasted Potato, Mushrooms and Foccacia Toast) $19 Read more »
A reader mentioned that Food for Thought serves up one of the cheapest breakfasts in town so of course I had to go check it out. For the record, I still think that Epicurious serves the the most value for money breakfast, but yeah, the queues can be frustratingly long on weekends.
There was not a soul when I went to Food for Thought on a Tuesday morning, although a few months back, it was jammed packed on a Saturday, which resulted in me having to dine somewhere else. I like the spacious feel of the place, and the glass walls which let lots of light in. They have a little corner with some stationery stuff for sale.
There are a few breakfasts to choose from, but basically you can customise whatever you want by choosing a basic set first and then adding on items, or simply customising from scratch. Do spend some time deciding on the best combination because sometimes it’s better to customise from scratch and some times it’s better to start with the basic set! Yours truly spent 10 minutes calculating the various permutations, mainly also because I was flexible with some of the dishes, which resulted in more permutations of course to get the best value for money breakfast!
While I’m on this healthy streak, I thought I should share my enthusiasm with you guys by posting some health tips you might like to follow.
Before I jump into the hard stuff, I’d like to tell you that I am a label reader, and I’ve always been so since I was a kid. My music school was right above a supermarket, and after class, I’d prowl the supermarket shelves, stalking the canned food or confectionary section. I’d actually read the ingredients and nutrition list. Don’t ask me why it’s so fascinating, but it just is. In fact, one of my dream jobs (still is!) is to work in a supermarket!
Anyway, the point is that when you read labels, you learn a lot more about the food you’re consuming. It just baffles me how easily people are fooled by the colourful words on the packaging, that are designed to make you think what THEY want you to think. Cereals for kids are the worst offender! But the truth is there for you to see, in the labels! For example, I once told a colleague to drink more fruit juice since he had come down with the flu. He dutifully went to 7-Eleven, and to my horror, bought a juice drink. Now when you see the word “juice drink”, rather than “juice” or “pure juice”, you know that it’s not pure. Many times it’s apple juice added, but in bad cases it’s sugar added. So he sipped on a sugary juice drink. Ah well, on to the mantras.
Eat 2 servings of fruit a day
So everyone has this vague idea that one should try and eat more fruits. The question is how much is enough? The answer is that you should eat at least 2 servings of fruit a day. And how much is 2 servings of fruit? 1 kiwi is about the size of 1 serving of fruit.
In a survey conducted by Zespri (the company that represents and markets NZ Kiwifruit), it was found that most Singaporeans aren’t getting at least 2 servings of fruit a day. At least more than 50% eat at least 1 serving of fruit a day. I certainly hope you’re not in the 8% that do not eat fruit at all! Two servings is the minimum btw, there are some health experts out there who say that you need to consume 9 servings per day! I think I’ll give myself a pat on the back if I can sustain 2 servings.
Not all fruits are created equal. Be kiasu, choose the best!
Okay you guys may think that I’m trying to hard sell the kiwifruit, but the facts are not fake. We should always eat a good variety of fruits for the various vitamins, but if you can only stomach a bit of fruit a day, go for the most power packed one!
Make your breakfast a nutritious one
You see, one excuse I have for not eating enough fruits is that after lunch or dinner, I’m just too full to eat anymore fruits. And believe it or not, I don’t snack all that much, yes it’s true lah! So actually, a good time to pack more fruits into my diet is to have fruit for breakfast.
In another survey conducted by Zespri, only 19% have fruits for breakfast, while a whopping 84% have bread, buns or biscuits. I don’t know about you but plain bread or bread with a sweetened spread is a definite NO NO for me for breakfast. The sugar from all the carbo hits me really hard and I literally feel like taking MC for the rest of the day.
So are you one of those that makes use of breakfast to jumpstart your day? Let’s ignore the survey that Zespri has done and conduct one ourselves. Fill in this survey and let me know what you have for breakfast!
May 7th, 2013 
365days2play 
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