Lovely Cafés in Asia-Pacific

The café culture is here to stay, both in Singapore and overseas. It matters not whether you are a coffee and/or tea drinker (or neither) but that we slow down our pace and take time to catch up with our thoughts, family and friends. We may plan to visit a café, a particular one even, or just need a place to rest our tired feet. Sometimes, we chance upon a lovely café with a decent menu at a reasonable price. What better way then, than to sip a cuppa and watch the world go by while nibbling on small and not-so-small bites?

Perth, Australia
It was a planned trip to Padbury's Café Restaurant for breakfast. I loved its interior and exterior – one of the oldest surviving commercial and residential buildings in Guildford, built in 1869. All the dishes we ordered were beautifully plated and deliciously fresh, from the sweet to the savoury such as Big Paddy's, Magic Mushroom and Padbury's Benedict. Of course, we had to order Our Famous Meringue Munro Pancakes. No complaints about the drinks and pretty latte art too.

Seoul, South Korea

As my travel companions and I did not manage to visit Garosu-gil during our first trip to Seoul, we decided to do so during the second time. Chanced upon SkinFood Café located above its concept store and settled on the quiet space with cheerful yellow accents against wooden furniture, white bricked walls and tiles. Did not expect much of its food and drinks since this is a cosmetic and skincare brand but they tasted surprisingly decent, and were also Instagram-worthy.

Taipei, Taiwan

My travel companions and I penned down in our itinerary that we would café-hop at Yongkang Street, just like we did in Garosu-gil. We were still full from lunch at Kao Chi when we walked past Smoothie House and gave it a miss. Continued walking down the street, saw 8% Ice Bistro and chose this as the sky was threatening to rain. Lovely place to chillax with good gelato and dessert, and enjoy coffee as-is, iced or in powder form – pour from shot glass onto lemon slice and have them together.

Dazzling Café

A queue started at 8.30am even though Dazzling Café was supposed to start operating from noon. As the only tenant opened on the first floor of Capitol Piazza, there were hoardings all around as its neighbours were still undergoing construction/renovation works. Yes, this is the hype of the Taiwanese café known for its instagram-worthy thick toast. With no intention of sniffling glue and eating dust, I waited 'til this month to finally drop by. It was for lunch on a weekday and we could be seated immediately. Ordered a main course each as well as an appetiser and two desserts for sharing. Pleasantly surprised that most of the dishes were better than expected – could neither rave about nor fault The Usuals (poached eggs, cream spinach and parma ham on brioche toast with hollandaise and micro herbs) and the recommended Mentaiko Spaghetti in Cream Sauce.

LeNu

Le Nu Taiwan Beef Noodle Bar, located on the 2nd floor of VivoCity, was empty when we visited on a weekday for lunch. It opened last year but either not many were aware of this restaurant or the food was expensive and/or tasted bad. Anyhow, we went ahead to save ourselves the hassle of squeezing with the lunch crowd at other places. Similar to Vietnamese Nam Nam Noodle Bar, we indicated our choices on the order chit before proceeding to the counter for payment and waiting for food to be served to our table. Instead of choosing firmness of noodles and amount of oil like Keisuke Takeda's Japanese restaurants, we chose from three types of broth and noodles each. The former included authentic beef broth, authentic beef broth with pickled cabbages, hot and spicy broth while the latter had options of broad and thin noodle or hor fun.

Eat at Taipei

Many locals love travelling to Bangkok, Hong Kong and Taiwan to eat and shop. As I am not a fan of tom yum soup, I prefer the special administrative region of the People's Republic of China to Thailand. And Taiwan would lie somewhere in between these two, for its cheap and mostly good street food as well as being a destination where I got to experience both the city and nature. With three branches in Singapore, Eat at Taipei brings to life Taiwanese distinctive and trendy street dining subculture by emulating the many fascinating characteristics of its night markets. Colourful signboards that characterise the contemporary capital combined with traditional back-to-basics dining of wooden tables and chairs to exude the buzz of nocturnal street food culture without the crowd, smell and noise. The first opened along the perimeter of JCube's ice skating rink, followed by the ones at Chinatown Point after its renovations and Raffles City Shopping Centre (not in sequential order).

Woo Ricebox

Located at the basement of Ocean Financial Centre is Woo Ricebox, which serves traditional Taiwan-style lunch boxes. Premium short-grain rice prized for its fragrance and springy texture when cooked are imported from Chihshang in Taidong where its 1st branch, at a major railway interchange, was set up in 1939. To cater to scores of hungry Taiwanese travellers embarking on train rides that lasted for hours on end, nutritious meals with a balance of meat and vegetables were created in convenient rice boxes –  small, compact and made of a special type of porous wood to help wick away excess moisture from the ingredients. This ensures the food stays fresh and warm hours after purchase and even fried items do not turn soggy. All rice boxes are paired with a choice of a main meat item, braised egg-half and beancurd as well as sautéed seasonal vegetables and a savoury blend of pickles.

BeansTalk and BlackBall

As I read The Sunday Times review on BeansTalk, I thought $2 for Taiwanese beancurd with 6 toppings was a good deal. No harm trying if I happened to be in Toa Payoh and have stomach space for it but alas, months have since passed me by. So when I saw another branch at Jurong East Temporary Interchange, decided to try it. Known as BeansTalk Signature, it was topped with grass jelly, pinto beans, red and green beans, roasted peanuts and taro balls. Silky beancurd was mediocre and left a strange taste on my tongue. Atop was grass jelly, beans and nuts I could neither rave about nor fault. Preferred BlackBall's grass jelly made with Mesona grass from Guan Xi, Taiwan – smooth and slippery enough to glide down my throat, not too sweet though some might find it a tad bitter. BeansTalk's colourful taro balls were chewy, just like that from BlackBall which also came with sweet potato balls. Though they were good, better ones could be found at Malaysia's Snowflakes.

Update: BeansTalk has been rebranded as Nine Fresh Desserts Taiwan.

SunnyHills

1st saw SunnyHills during Takashimaya Mooncake Fair but did not try its Sunny Delights, that is, pineapple cakes as I was focused only on mooncakes. Heard rave reviews of how delicious the pineapple was and decided to pop by Raffles Hotel Shopping Arcade one weekend afternoon. Located on the 3rd floor in a quiet corner, a sign at its entrance where eatery's menu would usually be placed read "Our Treat. Enjoy a cup of tea. Try our gourmet pineapple cake". Walking into the quaint little place with cement walls and floor, I noticed a big dining table carved out of a single tree right smack in the centre flanked by Atomi's Hiroshima chairs by Maruni. In the front corners just like a courtyard of someone's home were plants, bicycles and a bench with stools which could double as coffee tables. Felt at home with the warm hospitality of cheerful staff and magazines to read as I sat down with mostly Japanese customers, some of whom are tourists, and a few locals.