The Hungry Bunny

The famed New York brunch institution Clinton St Baking Co opened to great fanfare on our sunny shores. Queues were legendary and purportedly snaked along Purvis Street. Fast-forward a year later, and the queues have dissipated; the restaurant barely reaching full capacity even on a busy weekend afternoon. I finally got around to trying it, and understood why the crowd left. The brunch eggs were uneven, clunky and depressingly lackluster. Disappointing, in view of how deservedly beloved its New York mothership is. Perhaps the only worthwhile dish, the buttermilked fried Chicken & Waffles ($21) was faultless. The chicken tenders were luscious, seasoned with a honeyed tobasco marinade for a subtle heat. The waffles were beautifully thick, done Belgian style with oodles of buttermilk, crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside, with a maple butter sauce for drizzling over The Southern Breakfast ($18), comprising a couple of eggs fried sunny side up, crunchy strips of sug

There are 2 places in Singapore that I'd recommend my out-of-town friends to visit; Little India and Arab Street/Kampong Glam. These heritage constituencies are little pockets of old Singapore that have resisted gentrification and retained their unique charm, so they stand out from the other cookie-cutter aspects of our legoland of a metropolis. It helps that the food in these ethnic enclaves are fantastic. You can't walk 100 meters without hitting up a must-try restaurant. Most will know the Race Course Road stretch of Little India as a "golden mile" of sorts for culinary treasures. Here's where the flagships of the famed Banana Leaf Apollo, Gayatri , and Muthu's Curry restaurants are based. While the aforementioned "big-three" mostly specialise in South Indian cuisine, there are a few which do Northern fare pretty well. Like Jaggi's Northern Indian Cuisine , a casual canteen-style, self-serviced joint that's propagated with Indians, both

I haven't been to Gunther's in forever, often skipping the revered French restaurant in favour of its Italian sister Garibaldi . Truth be told, I'm a little biased towards Italian cuisine, even if the carb-centric cuisine wrecks whatever diet plans I'm attempting off-kilter. Oh well, life is best lived dolce vita, eh? Anyway, the homecoming (of sorts) to Gunther's is going down as one of 2016's best meals. Every element, from the food to the ambience and service, was smashing. I'd venture that Gunther's remains the best French restaurant in all of Singapore. Dinner was exquisitely stellar, with food that was rich in soul and flawlessly executed, albeit marred by the barest of hiccups which I was happy to overlook. Also, I don't know what they feed their service staff but it's incredible how Gunther's and Garibaldi both provide first-class service that's unparalleled. I'd term it "indiscriminate graciousness", where

Adam Road Food Centre may be famous for its delicious nasi lemak peddlers, but the humble little hawker center has a bunch of other stalls worthy of a visit. Warong Pak Sapari The Mee Soto ($3.50) is one of the very best on the island, with a clear broth rich, heady and spicy all at once. Studded with shredded chicken chunks and beansprouts, this is a must-try. A tip is to drizzle that black sauce-chilli blend and swirl it in for an added kick. Apparently, their mee rebus is quite legendary as well, but alas, they'd sold out for the day when we popped by for dinner. 01-09 Adam's Indian Rojak We don't eat Indian rojak very often, but Adam's Indian Rojak ($3 minimum order) sure is tempting. Items are thickly coated with a flour batter and deep-fried to perfection. A robust punchy sauce, redolent of nuts and sugar, lends a lively tone to the fried mains. A must-order is the tempe, which boasts beautifully nutty overtones. 01-05 Ibrahim Mee Stall

Bear with me while I rant a little... So I've noticed this phenomenon while dining at hawker centres: that only a minority of our people clear their tables after eating, and/or return their dirty dishes to the return-tray shelves. Oftentimes, it's only the Hubs and I, an anomaly in a hawker centre swarming with oafish louts, who leave our tables as clean as it was before we sat down. We're baffled; why don't people clear up after themselves? The older generation, it's understandably forgiveable, but the younger set?! Especially those of my generation and younger (I'm referring to the millenials here). Don't the schools already impose a return-tray policy in the canteens???? Eating and then just walking off without clearing your table is such an atrociously lazy, uncultured and ungracious habit! I mean, do you not help clean up at home? (and if you say you've a maid, or worse still, mother, to do all that, I'm gonna want to tump you on the head a

(quick aside: pardono for the radio silence. I was out recuperating from a torn ligament, and then away travelling Down Under.) I love Teochew porridge. It's just so damn difficult to find a good one. Oftentimes, the dishes are less than sparkling fresh, having been left out in the cold for hours on end. But then, there's Teck Porridge , a recent discovery of ours but apparently a stalwart in the Teochew porridge scene. Once a fixture of the Joo Chiat enclave, they uprooted to a hawker stall in the popular Old Airport Road Food Centre, before moving back East again, several blocks away from their original haunt, along East Coast Road. It's been quite the frenzied movement in just a short span of 2 years, and to draw its loyal-but-bewildered fans back, Teck Porridge has rebranded as " Joo Chiat Teochew Porridge ". Whatever its name, this is the best Teochew porridge place ever. The food here is impossibly fresh, with most dishes cooked to order, save for the b