Lola's Cafe

All over Singapore, old shop houses are getting a makeover. The old economy of simplicity are no longer enough as new money pours in. New Western styled restaurants, bars and bistros are sprouting up everywhere? Besides the possibility fighting dementia in the distant future, how are we going to find our childhood memories where a large part of us are no longer in existence? 

Are changes in the name of change really good? Search me. Some times, other than old school, I would patronise new joints, Arty farty places. Places where the young goes. So we decided to visit a small cafe and planned to be there earlier because besides being a small place, it is hard to find a parking space for cars. We went to Lola.

Lola is probably a name of Spanish origin, meaning strong woman. A type where once she's in your heart she'll be there for a long time, maybe forever. Normally, books and movies would portray Lola as a lady with stunning looks and personality to match. Every time you see her there is happiness. Perhaps even excitement and surprise but I have known no one as Lola.

And so we found Lola's Cafe at Simon Road (along Upper Serangoon Road and opposite Kovan Residences). 

A great thing here is it is laid back, You can come in flip flops if you may like, a right at your backyard kind of cafe. Many young people seems to like it as they would come and wait and while waiting they would simply chat away and indulge themselves with their mobile phones. You give them you number and they'll ring you up when it is your turn. We got seated at this table which I realised harked back to the old days of "Singer"sewing machines now converted to a table top.

They have all kinds of coffee, tea and crafted beers, Bratwurst and Avocado Eggs Benedict for Brunch, Beer Battered Fish and Chips, Burgers and various types of spaghetti for dinner, etc.

They make food here like this Seafood Spaghetti.

I had a Matcha Green Tea Latte which was very good.

This Slow Braised Pork Goulash Stew was wonderful. It shall be my default order when I next visit.

This Bacon and Mushroom Spaghetti in Truffle Cream Sauce was excellent too.

I seldom have fries but I kind of like Truffle Fries.

And of course my dinner was a Duck Leg with Honey Mustard Sauce. 

It's just like Duck Confit.

Somehow, I found it strange that not everyone likes duck.

But when it comes to this, very few will reject them.

Black Tea Prune Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream.

And Honey Panna Cotta served with crunchy walnut crumbles.

Devilishly good.

Of course I was conned into it because the bill came to me. Sigh. A fool and his money is soon parted. Good for family bonding though.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more