Dine & Dish #4 - I am better than Rachel Ray!

I have to admit, I have not watched Rachel Ray in action on "$40 a day" before, but I do understand the concept behind it and I really have to give it to Becks and Posh for thinking of such a unique theme for the Dine & Dish #4 event.

US$40 translates roughly to about S$66. Food is cheap and good and varied in Singapore so even as I start my day with just $66 tucked in my wallet, I eagerly wonder what I will end up eating for the day.

Luckily for me, Ya Kun had just opened a branch at my work place so breakfast was not a problem. I got a traditional breakfast of softboiled eggs, best eaten with soy sauce and white pepper, accompanied by char-grilled toast spread with butter and topped off with a sprinkling of coarse sugar and all washed down by a cup of strong, local coffee sweetened with condensed milk, all for merely S$3.60! I had forgotten to take a picture (yeah I am a terrible flogger!) so I had to lift one off their website.


Near lunchtime, I was craving some Japanese soba so I went to Ichiban Boshi. They had a wide selection of food, both on the menu as well as the conveyor-belt. I got a cold cha-soba and salmon sushi off the conveyor (both S$1.90) and ordered a sake head miso soup (S$3.50) and their delicious chawanmushi (S$4.20). The food, while not excellent, was satisfactory and not to forget, did not burn a hole in my pocket as the total bill came up to S$14.50.

Come dinner time, I pondered over what to eat. I had read about another French creperie from Brittany that sprouted out in the suburban area. Now, while I am not so much of a thick pancake fan, crepes I love! I was eager to check this one out as I needed to find competition to the only other authentic creperie I know of. So off to Le P'tit Breton I went.

I started with an order from the savories - a galette with goat cheese (S$6.90). I was taken aback at the plain-looking, white lump of goat cheese sitting in the middle of my crepe. It stared back at me, every bit as lonely as the picture depicted (shaky hands = blurry picture; sorry about that). The batter should have been more evenly spread out as a good portion of the crepe from the edges turned all crispy. A good crepe in my opinion, should remain thin yet chewy throughout the entire disc.

After the somewhat disappointing savory galette, I looked forward to the dessert crepes. In my opinion, a good sweet crepe requires minimal dressing so I usually go plain with just powdered sugar and squeeze of lemon. But surprisingly, there was no such option so I decided to go for strawberries and sugar (S$6.50) instead. Hmm, if anything, this item redeemed a bit of dignity for Le P'tit Breton. Made more evenly, the crepe was more chewy and there was just enough strawberry halves to make it through with every bit of crepe. Though the strawberries were a little tart, it was nothing that the generous sprinkling of powdered sugar could not fix. Dinner cost me S$15.40.

Feeling rich still, I decided to go get another round of sugar high, this time back at Bakerzin.

A suprise awaited me as I found out a new menu had been introduced! Right on the first couple pages, there was an option to go for desserts, tapas style. After much hmm-ing and ah-ing, I finally went for a selection of 3 desserts (S$9.50). From left: raspberry panna cotta, lychee espuma, hot chocolate shooter with housemade chocolate ice cream. I must remember to stick to their specialty French cakes in future.

The panna cotta was cloyingly thick and much too sweet; the bit of raspberry puree, though tart, was not enough in quantity to neutralise my glucose-induced shock. The lychee espuma was interesting but I did not feel justified paying for what was mostly foam. Lastly, the hot chocolate was rich but nothing spectacular. In fact, the ice cream did nothing except to make the entire drink lukewarm.

Feeling somewhat a bit low from the highly anticipated sugar high, I left for home, jingling change from my day. When I calculated I still had S$20.30 left, I thought, "Dang! I am better than Rachel Ray!" and instantly, I felt better.

Hope everyone else enjoyed being Rachel Ray for the day!