The One on Gourmet Coffee (Part 2)

Stoner pointed out I should spell out the difference between espresso, latte and cappuccino. So I'm gonna do just that. Thanks Stoner!

Espresso

Comes in shots (sounds like something notti), this is not for the faint hearted. Served usually in a petite cups, it is much stronger and definitely more potent than your regular black coffee. Good for a quickie drink, that is when you find your date boring and just want to finish the drink, and perhaps have the alertness to look for another one in the IRC later that night :p

Latte

Steam your milk till it's frothy and let it settle first, then fill your latte glass till the level of the upper handle, add a dash of foam, and lastly a shot of espresso. Voila! You made your first glass of latte, congratulations. Latte basically means "milk" in Italian, which makes sense because you're adding more volume of milk than coffee into your glass. More suited for people who wants to drink milk, or just a tinge of coffee in their drinks. It is really too weak for STB's taste.

Cappuccino

To make a good cappuccino, you need to be very skilled in steaming your milk. Refrigerated cold pasteurized full cream milk will be the best as it can be frothed more easily. Once you get your foam up and milk settled, fill your cappuccino cup with one shot of espresso, cover the cup with foam till its flat. Next, pour a bit of milk at the center of the cup till the foam is about half an inch above the brim, giving the "cap" in cappuccino. Lastly, sprinkle a generous layer of cocoa powder on the cap, and give yourself a pat at the back. It is up to you to determine how "dry" you want your cappuccino to be, dry will mean less milk and thus stronger coffee. Oh, and remember to ask your date "Is there something you wanna tell me?" after drinking your cap.

There you have it, three basic gourmet coffees, of course then you can exercise your creativity and add your own customization to the coffee, very much Starbucks-style, some of the tips:

1. Additional shot of espresso, less milk will obviously make the coffee stronger
2. Use soy milk or low-fat (skimmed) milk to make your coffee healthy
3. Decaf if you want to enjoy the taste of coffee and yet want to sleep at night, you can't really taste the different (trust me even STB has been fooled by his ex by taking in a cup of decaf instead of regular)
4. Add ice to make it iced latte or iced cappuccino of course, always add ice into the cup first before anything!
5. Add different flavored syrup to your latter or cappuccino, there are a lot of possibilities out there: from the time-tested chocolate syrup to hazelnut to even ceylon tea. Recommended brand of syrup is Da Vinci and Monin, bartender's favorite.
6. Add whipped cream instead of foam, always STB's preferred choice!

Ok, hope you're inspired enough to start your own cafe now, or at least buy a new full fledged coffee machine for your house. Go ahead, pamper yourself, you deserve it. Any more enquiries like milk steaming techniques, please feel free to direct them to me. 

Sotongball hopes to conduct classes on coffee tasting and making to promote the awareness and goodness of the caffeinated drink that is the most popular beverage around the world sometime after he retires...

The One on Gourmet Coffee

The day/night you see Sotongball not functioning normally, he probably hasn't consumed his first cup of coffee, or simply because he might be too sexed up. Jokes aside, if you know STB well enough, you would know that his favourite drink is no doubt iced coffee, as long as there's coffee, sugar and milk in the mixture. Slit STB's throat and he can literally bleed coffee.

I wouldn't have the balls to admit that I'm the coffee connoisseur. But having gone out for so many dates and outings, more often than not we'll sum up the night in a coffee place, topped up with my experience of having worked as a barista, I would say I have enough credibility to recommend some good gourmet coffee.

Gourmet coffee in STB's terms, refers to coffee prepared from coffee machines and syphons rather than your socks coffee in the neighbourhood kopitiams. That means your espressos, lattes, cappuccino, frappe and what-nots.

Just like how different people has different preference of saunas, it works the same for coffee places. Sotongball aims to provide a review of coffee places not based on their espresso quality, but based on the differentiation they offer. In no order of preference:

1. The Coffee Connoisseur

Intro: Well well, who would have expected this to appear first on the list? I think the BWers have chalked up enough spendings (SGD88 subtotal each) in TCC to get every regular a TCC card each. Easily the BWers' favourite after-dinner haunt (or only STB's for that matter)...

Selling point: TCC is the only chain that offers service in terms of Service Crew doing the whole SOP, from taking orders to billing), of course that incurs. They have a full menu, which includes food, desserts, non-coffee drinks and of course, coffees.

2. Starbucks

Intro: This one needs no introduction, Starbucks is probably the first that comes to anyone's mind when you talk about gourmet coffee. You'll find a lot of students hanging out in Starbucks outlets because the staffs will never come and bother you as long as you buy a cup of drinks. Frequent travelers will never go wrong with Starbucks because they're just everywhere.

Selling point: STB is still in love the Christmas drink, Mocha Praline (not in the menu but you can call for Mocha with Hazelnut syrup. I believe with UOB Visa Signature card, you'll be able to get a complimentary one-for-one latte.

3. Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

Intro: Coffee Bean is not unlike Starbucks, with maybe some food menu but STB has never really fancied their food. The Coffee Bean Card offers member discounts in form of SGD22 credit for every SGD20 top up, and on top of that redemption points. Also drinks of the month gets a free upsize for Coffee Bean Card holders.

Selling point: There are quite impressive spread of cakes in Coffee Bean, the management probably spend more time churning out recipes for cakes of the month rather than drinks of the month. 

4. Mc Cafe

Intro: McDonald's does not only want to conquer the fast food market, you can see there are a lot of McCafes sprouting out either within or next to the McDonald's outlet.

Selling point: Cheap coffee of comparable quality, you can almost buy 2 McCafe iced lattes for the price of 1 Starbucks iced latte (sans the Visa Signature promotion). A good place to hang out too if you're on a budget and need a place to sit long long.

There you have it, so don't complain there's no place to bring your date to after dinner because these outlets mentioned are just almost every where.

STB's tips to drinking espresso:

• Standing time of espresso is about 30 seconds, meaning if you don't finish it ASAP from the moment it is dispense from the coffee machine, it might turn sour.
• Do not sip it bit by bit, it's meant to be drank in one shot, that's why it's call single or double shot.
• Don't worry about making noise, in fact the louder the slurp the better. Making the espresso reach the bitter taste bud of your tongue (where it's closest to the throat) will allow you to taste the richness of espresso without compromise (or any coffee for that matter)

Sotongball always dreams of having his first full-fledge coffee machine at home, complete with milk steamer to make the perfect cappuccino with his own hand-picked blend of beans from Nepal, Jamaica, Java and whichever third world countries...

The One on Buckaroo

If you're wondering: who goes all the way to Sembawang for fine dining kind of Western Food? Yes, you're not alone. Sotongball shared the same sentiment when he sat in NFB's car, driving past Punggol, Yishun, Mandai and so on... and finally arriving at our destination, Buckaroo. No no, it's not a Japanese vulgar language. Sotongball is testing today whether does a picture really say a thousand words:

With this kind of deco in an otherwise quiet private housing estate, who wouldn't spot the restaurant?

First up: Onion Rings...

It's crispy and crunchy, not unlike Sotongball. More importantly the playful presentation of this dish suggests that, to be able to poke through so many holes, you need a really loooooong tool to help.

Next: the Buffalo Wings...

Come in half or a dozen, this is not your typical BBQ chicken wings. It's slightly wet and the zesty and tangy marinate might not appeal to everyone's taste bud. Nonetheless the meat is so tender that you can even break the drumstick from the wings by just using your fork and knife. Good for people who do not want to dirty their jade hands while eating.

Third: Deep Fried Button Mushrooms...

More like GIANT button mushrooms, one can only wish that he can encounter such a big mushroom head in his whole life.

"Try to finish me in one mouthful... Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh"

Last but not least: Spaghetti Ola Ola with Seafood...

This is yummy. Mussels, prawns and fish, stir-fried with spaghetti in olive oil and garlic. The base of the plate is at least half a cm thick of oil. But everyone around the table was trying to console themselves by saying that it's olive oil so it's healthy. Tsk tsk tsk...

That said, Buckaroo also serves your other Western staples: Ribs, Steak, Fish & Chips and so on. Four of us spent around SG$95 on the four items above plus Ribs. If you are bored of the food in town, and have all the time in the world to travel up to Sembawang for some good food and ambience. Do give Buckaroo a try, details are as below:

Buckaroo

12B Andrews Avenue

+65 67542621 OR 64814986

Wednesdays to Mondays

4pm-10.30pm

The One on Half-Boiled Eggs

We shall start Foodie Friday with Sotongball's favorite breakfast staple, the humble and yet satisfying half-boiled egg, dare I to say "just like fried sotongballs"? :p

It has served Sotongball well during his junior college days in providing him the protein that he needed to replenish, whether it's good or bad protein it really didn't matter. I remember when I was young my mum used to discourage me from eating too much half-boiled eggs because it is not fully cooked and unhealthy. But I guess since young Sotongball has realized his liking for the texture of the half-boiled eggs or something similar.

In Sotongball's humble opinion, half-boiled eggs taste the best when they are runny, the yellow egg yolk must be in whole and the egg white is white yet not so volatile. Neither should both the egg yolk and white be hard at all. A perfect example would be the picture shown below:

Sotongball has visited a few local coffeehouse chains such as Ya Kun. I would say most of the outlets has mastered a SOP of how to prepare the perfect half-boiled eggs up to STB's standard. Places like Ya Kun and Toast Box never failed to deliver so far. But STB has been very very disappointed with Killiney's eggs, the egg size is small and the yolk is hard and powdery, and it costs frigging 1.50, most expensive of all! 

If you're boiling it yourself in your neighborhood coffee shop or at home, just put it into boiling hot water enough to cover the whole of each egg, and set your timer to between 4 and 4.5 mins. And voila! you get a STB's approved pair of half-boiled eggs

Just like how to approach a man, there are many ways of eating the half-boiled eggs. Some like to beat it till everything is a mess of yellow and white (can really look like cum with pus :p), some like to dip their toast into the beaten half-boiled egg (does sweet kaya toast even go with salty half-boiled eggs??), some like to use the teeny-weeny spoon to scoop their eggs, while some simply like to slurp it all the way till the last drop.

Sotongball's way of eating the half-boiled eggs:

1. It's a given that the eggs usually come in pairs
2. Cover the top surface with a thin layer of pepper
3. Drip one and a half teaspoon of soya sauce all over the eggs, try not to use the super salty one.
4. Beat ONE of the egg yolk and spread all around the other unbeaten one.
5. Slurp half of the mixture, go ahead be unglam and make as much noise as you like
6. Gulp the whole unbeaten egg yolk into your mouth, careful not to smell too much of the pepper and sneeze
7. Rupture the unbeaten egg yolk in your mouth and feel the explosion of taste in your mouth. Mmmmmmmm.....
8. Slurp the rest of the mixtures

There you go, a fulfilling experience of eating the half-boiled egg, a bit blown-up I know... Maybe you can try this method the next time you have your half-boiled eggs, which I'm sure it will be pretty often. ;)

Sotongball initially planned to visit a few coffee joints that sell soft-boiled eggs and take pictures of good and bad examples of half-boiled eggs. But failed to do so because as soon as the half-boiled eggs arrived at his table, he couldn't even remember to take out his camera but to pay full respect to the half-boiled eggs.