Penny University (Review)

Headed down to Penny University for a second time with my sister during the CNY break, since she was visiting from Shanghai and wanted to cafe hop.

Penny University is a term that originated from 18th century coffeehouses in London, England.

For the price of a penny, one had access to coffee, the company of people from all levels of society, discussions, bulletins, newspapers and the latest gossip.

Penny University makes a mean cup of Joe. The Muddled Espresso with ice is wonderful, layered, with strong body and texture. With each sip is a different surprise on body, flavor and intensity. The coffee is robust and bold yet very balanced. We had a cherry pie, just the right marriage of zing and sweetness, with a crunchy, rustic crust. The crowd, ambience and service is also the way I like a cafe: unassuming but always full of surprises.  The people at Penny University are definitely doing it right!

  

Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar (Review)

Robertson Quay is a prime location for cafes and restaurants alike. I heard good things about Smitten from the cafe that I work at, so I decided to try it out one Friday afternoon. The place is really cozy and quiet, there was only one other table occupied when I was there. Ambience wise, its great for a lazy day, armed with the sweet dark balm of energy. Smitten makes an alright cuppa, I wasn't really a fan of the latte. The food is also slightly overpriced, the Bratwurst Nibblets came with one sausage chopped up into many bite sized pieces and some chips for sgd $4.90. Frankly, places that serve small portions for not so small prices leave me underwhelmed and very jaded. Despite that, the service was friendly but not overbearing. When its cuddle weather out, take the cue and buy yourself a cup of black coffee and read at Smitten. Wont go wrong. Just think twice about the food.

chinese new year #day 1

The really good looking barista at GWC whom I haven't seen in months came up and talked to me. What a lovely guy. The guy is from Indo and hasn't got any family here. Maybe I should have asked him out to dinner. Instead I got home and had chips with tzatziki, sun dried tomato hummus and guacamole. In other news, I think I have to stop being so pessimistic about the festivities. It will be hard to keep up with this facade when I'm 30 and no one will give me the excuse of being young and unsociable. Now there, I wouldn't want to be the aunt who never really grew up and still wears black to reunions huh! That would be terrible, just terrible! (ha ha.)

Really though, this time of the year just makes me so depressed. The memories, the people and just the mood in general. I hope its just a phase. 

The Eatery: App (review)

As an aspiring chef, one of the things I find myself doing a lot is, visiting many different restaurants of course. I try to taste different and interesting flavors, look out for marriages of different taste profiles, and push myself at learning more about techniques, flavor, and plating when I head out to eat.

That said, in my own time I try to eat as healthily as I can because I care about health and nutrition very much. It can be said to be a marriage of Heaven and Hell really, a constant tussle between the two very different natures of my diet.

So when I chanced upon The Eatery app when Jenn Im of clothesencounters shared it, I immediately downloaded it from the Apple app store. 

So what you do is you snap a picture of your food...

And then you rate it on the FAT-FIT scale of 10-100. Other users get to rate your food as well. 

This is a week's snapshot of meals, for example (pictures are taken off The Eatery website). 

Being passionate about nutrition, I do think this is a wonderful way of getting people to just be more conscious and aware of what they are putting into their bodies, and also if it is necessarily the most healthy thing to be having. Having to look back on a week's worth of food also sets things in perspective about the ratio of healthy vs indulgent foods that I've been having. However, on one night out I had sweet wine, soju, a Harvey Wallbanger cocktail and an Old Fashioned in the span of 2 hours, and people seemed to rate it >65-70 on the fit scale. That surprised me. If one doesn't have the accurate knowledge backing them up, the support that builds up from a social media community may send some wrong signals about the actual benefits of your food.

That said, I think this is better for people who are starting out on a weight loss journey, or people who don't take this more than a mere way of logging their food and taking responsibility for what they eat. I once had to rate an entry that stated "I ate so much I don't even want to talk about it". The thing is, anyone who has ever tried to be health conscious knows that health isn't just an objective measure of "a salad is good, a packet of fries is bad". While objectively you could actually justify that, we all know how much the mental game is involved when it comes to a lifelong, healthy lifestyle. The food choices we do to rejuvenate our minds are just as important as what we do for our physicality. While I'm not discounting the merits of The Eatery, I do hope that the app will one day include room for spiritual and mental support/wellness, and look at diet/healthy lifestyles as a holistic endeavor!

Overall, The Eatery is a great, passionate move by the people at Massive Health, so props to that!