Singapore Top Travel, Beauty, Food, Lifestyle Blog

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Chilling at Kooka Cafe (Purvis Street)

Kooka Cafe Singapore
*note* 13.10.2013 Kooka Cafe has closed down already! :(

Cafe-hoppin' has become one of my favourite things to do of late. With so many little cafes and joints popping up all over the island, there are always so many choices to explore! Had an afternoon date with the sissy Gina, and since both of us were around Bugis/Bras Basah area, I posted a shout-out for recommendations nearby on my IG, and ended up at Kooka Cafe, located along Purvis Street.

It only took me a short 5-6 minutes walk from Bras Basah Complex, and I found myself in front of a vintage green shophouse facade, which was utterly charming.

Kooka Cafe Purvis Street
Sissy reached before I did and fortunately got us a table, the space does not house many tables, and was almost fully occupied at 1.30PM in the afternoon.

Kooka Cafe Singapore Opening Hours
Kooka Cafe's opening hours scrawled on a framed chalk board. Cute!

Kooka Cafe Singapore Purvis Street
The interior of Kooka Cafe: A somewhat rustic, laid-back air with paintings by local artists up on the walls for sale, simple wooden furniture and little pieces of quirkiness here and there, like a barrel that served as a water/utensils stand (self-service), a Vespa motorcycle that held a basket of oranges, and a set of drawers displaying some odds and ends. Nothing very fanciful nor overly pretentious, which made me feel very at ease right away! :)

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Tips jar and a line of cookies and biscuits.

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Self-service station with iced water. Fuss-free is good!

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Some of the tarts and cakes lurking within the refrigerated display!

Kooka Cafe Singapore
This tart was lying on top of the display refridgerator. Looked so goooood. Almond tart?

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Here's the Vespa I was talking about. I wonder if the owner rides it to work @.@

I took a few sneak shots of some other customers at Kooka Cafe, there were pairs of friends engaged in intimate conversations, the solo coffee drinker who was plugged into a pair of headphones, and a pretty young mother who was playing with her adorable baby. Made such picturesque photos against the oil paintings that were mounted on the green walls!

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Kooka Cafe Singapore

Kooka Cafe Singapore

Kooka Cafe's menu is quite modest, and the prices are also more affordable than most. Which is really great! :)

Kooka Cafe Iced Mocha
Gina's Iced Mocha. It was good! I took a sip and thought that the coffee was fragrant and chocolatey-ly yummy with chocolate sauce drizzled on the inside of the glass.

From what I read, Kooka Cafe serves organic fair trade coffee, which is coffee that is certified as having been produced and marketed to a stated set of standards. (From Wikipedia: Many customers pay a higher price when buying coffee with the certification logo or brand in the belief that, by doing so, they are helping farmers in the Third World. In particular, the fair trade coffee movement gives a reasonable price to the farmers who were being a low-wage labor exploitation.)

Kooka Cafe Singapore Tea
They serve Gryphon Teas, so I got my Earl Grey Lavender! The tea came with a lemon thin (also available for sale!) and the lemon thin was surprisingly tasty, with a zesty flavour and crisp-ness.

We spotted a Truffle Fries on the menu for only $8 (It was on the Day's Specials, I think!) and of course had to order it! :)
Kooka Cafe Truffle Fries
They were crinkle-cut fries (not my preference) but were fresh out of the fryer and piping hot. The truffle smell/taste wasn't very strong though, and the saltiness of the fries was more overwhelming than the truffle. Didn't make it for a spot on my re-order list, unfortunately.

Kooka Cafe Lasagna
As for the minced beef lasagna, the flavour and taste was great! However, it was dry around the edges (probably because it was not freshly baked and had been re-heated before serving?) so I was a little disappointed :(

Kooka Cafe Food

Kooka Cafe Singapore
Requisitory pose with food picture lalala.

After we finished off the lasagna and fries, we moved on to something sweet! It was a tough choice between a few of the choice items like the Blueberry Cheesecake and Sticky Date Pudding.. Gina had cravings for Sticky Date Pudding so we got that instead! It's very affordable too, $8 (I think?) only! One of the cheapest Sticky Date Puddings I've tried.

Kooka Cafe Sticky Date Pudding
And if you're wondering how this dish fared, we both loved it! The butterscotch sauce was so decadently rich, and the sticky date pudding was moist and delicious.

Gotta try this if you're a fan of sticky date pudding!

Kooka Cafe Sticky Date Pudding
Half-way through the dish. Yum yum!

Anyways, we got a change of table when one of the nicer tables got vacated hehe. 

Here's a nice shot of Gina! Not bad ah.



And pictures of me haha #poserbutIdon'tcare


We spent quite a few hours at the cafe, I had a productive afternoon editing photos for TheVelvetDolls while Gina revised her Korean homework hehe. Yayness to awesome work time!


Shots with Gina! True blue sisters, but we so totally don't look alike. Weird genes.

I really like Kooka Cafe! 

It's a very convenient location for me (near where I teach my vocal classes) and I'd definitely want to go back on other days, and try the other food on the menu. I adore the simplicity and unassuming air to the cafe, and I'm sure I could spend many hours just sitting in there armed with a good book or my laptop to work on. Thanks to the great recommendation from the lovely people on my IG! :)

❤❤❤

Kooka Cafe
18 Purvis Street, Singapore

Mon-Wed: 10:00am - 7:00 pm
Thu: 10:00am - 9:00 pm
Fri – Sat: 10:00am -10:00 pm

https://www.facebook.com/kookacafe

❤❤❤


Outfit of the day!

Denim shirt as outerwear from Zara
Floral tube bustier from TheVelvetDolls
Random black bandage skirt
Sam Edelrman loafers from OnPedder
Vintage Chanel 2.55


Love the floral prints! This bustier top from TheVelvetDolls comes in a matching skirt print too! Hehe.

Spend the evening at the Bras Basah Bugis Arts Flea Market which I blogged about in the previous here! Super happy when I get to have such a fulfilling day out. And that's not even the end of the day.. Had awesome dinner night and KTV after that too! Hahaha. SO FUN!

And randomly, loving how my skin has been looking of late! Been getting compliments on having a flawless complexion, even from a reader who spotted me on the streets. Well, it's nothing magical, but I'll be sharing more in the next entry in regards to the skin!

Be right back with more blog posts. #bloggingmojoohyeah!

Thank you for reading! :D

xoxo
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Monday, September 2, 2013

At Bras Basah Bugis Arts Flea Market by Public Garden

Happy Sunday!!! ^.^

This weekend has been an extremely fruitful and happy one for me, because I had some time to really unwind from work, spend precious moments with loved ones, and hang out with awesome people.. Love weekends like this! Usually, I'm working throughout the weekend, because I teach vocal classes, and have choir rehearsals and photoshoots, so such weekends are really rare and much cherished!

So yesterday, YZ and I went down to the Bras Basah Bugis Arts Flea Market by Public Garden at CHJIMES!

It's been a looong loooong time since I've been to a flea! The last time was probably when TheVelvetDolls were still taking part in flea markets, a good two years ago. We stopped doing it because it was really very tiring and time-consuming. But I've always loved the hustle and bustle of a flea market, and I love the eclectic crowd and mish-mash of creatives, vintage, handmade, and all things unique!






The flea was held at CHJIMES main hall, and it was so packed! At least it was somewhat air-conditioned. Though you could barely feel it cos it was way too crowded lol.

I was there at the flea to support Suying and Suling, who run MerryLove, a newly established wedding shop/company! :D And MerryLove will be in charge of my wedding styling/set-up... So excited about it! We haven't really settled on a theme and all that, but we've already discussed quite a bit and I'm really looking forward to working with these two wonderful girls!

Below are some of MerryLove's offerings, they have pre-orders and ready stocks for beautiful wedding things, deco, props and the likes! All at affordable prices too!!


Their paper pompoms are extremely popular and instantly charms up any space.. I love them!


Flower headpieces. Perfect for a lovely garden photoshoot!


Paper flower bouquets which I think are so much more economical than fresh flowers, just for the fact that they can be kept and re-used.


This is actually Suying's personal bouquet that she held for her wedding.. Super sweet!


Lovely rustic ring pillows.

Mr and Mrs signs!!! Hehehe.


Here's the two sisters from MerryLove! They are really lovely people and I am very thankful for the chance to be able to work with them! Thank you ❤

We also wandered through the entire flea market, which wasn't really that big, and I really really liked some of the stalls!

Like this one that sells hand-made knit and felt plushies and soft toys! Plus, it's actually operated by a family, the mummy is the one who makes these lovely crafts and her daughter was there to help her sell them. I found the shop on Facebook, it's called Lcube!


There was a minion knit toy that was available for pre-order too! Mad cute.


There were also a few stalls that sold pretty jewelry pieces, though I didn't get any.


I particularly liked this stall.. It's run by OhPopDog, and these girls design and handsew their own doggie clothes and accessories! Lovely branding, and great work on the doggie clothes! The owners are very young and enterprising, and have alot of love for the things they create. It's very heartwarming to see such passion and creativity and love in Singaporeans! :') Support!!


I thought these knit doggie bow-ties were super adorable! Bought one for Baby. Teehee.


Another stall that YZ and I had a lot of fun at! This stall brought us back to our childhood days with their kitschy and vintage inspired pieces, like brooches, necklaces and small objects inspired by childhood snacks, games, and the likes. We were exclaiming with delight and getting so excited over them! Much reminiscing was going on too. Good old days!


These snack brooches were first drawn and painted before being printed on fabric and made into little pins/brooches! Some of my all-time favourite snacks! 

And these rings look just like the biscuits I loved as a kid!
I have the real thing in my kitchen right now hehe Mummy bought them! Love these biscuits!

Rabbit milk candy and Mamee, two of my favourite snacks!


A stall that showcased the watercolor illustrations of a local artist, I thought the way she displayed her pieces was ingenious! I also loved the unique illustration style, and how some of her illustrations had a local flavour to them!


For instance this Ang Ku Kueh one! Super cute ah! Didn't take down the name of the artist though. Oops.


Food can never go wrong, and this stall was just next to MerryLove's, her bakes looked very enticing!




We brought back a Salted Caramel Nutella Tart and it was pretty good!


With YZ! ❤ Can you believe this is the first flea market that we've went to, together? Glad that we went down, it was a magical experience that brought us out of our usual boring comfort zone and it was such an eye-opener too!

All in all, we had a really good time exploring the flea market, and most of all, I really admire all these wonderfully talented and creative people who are all fiercely pursuing dreams and passions with their unique gifts and offerings. I like chatting with all the different stall vendors who are always more than happy to share about their products and themselves. To me, it's like getting a little peek into the lives and dreams of strangers who are just people like you and me but have their own aspirations and love for what they do. It's always inspiring for me to meet and talk to such people!

Put the knit bow-tie I got from OhPopDog on my fattie chihuahua!

Teehee. I hope her silly face adorned with a cute bow-tie made you smile a little!

And that's the end of a beautiful weekend. I did a whole lot more, but will share in another entry cos I don't want this to be too long a post! I'm feeling all charged up with positive energy and brimming with happiness! What a wonderful way to end off August, and start off September! ❤

If you haven't yet checked it out, there are also new arrivals on TheVelvetDolls!
Only limited sizes/pieces left, but I really love this collection! :)

Go check it out! 

And I wish everyone a blessed September too! ❤❤❤

xoxo
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© Yina Goes

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