One of the neighbourhoods in the town area that I have gradually learnt to explore is Little India. It is actually surprisingly near to Bugis (within walking distance through Bencoolen) and has much more interesting sights and places to discover than always walking Bugis Street/ Bugis Junction/ Bugis+/ Haji Lane. Located right at the aforementioned neighbourhood, Flee Away Cafe is very thoughtfully put together by the lady boss.
This book was pretty outstanding when I was browsing the details that filled every corner of the shop. Rehashed from the original children's story, The Three Little Pigs Lah is written by Casey Chan (also the one behind the Singapore Heart badges you can find in Cat Socrates and many other shops) laced with tongue-in-cheek humour and heavy Singlish input. I was quite heartened to see these efforts to materialize bits of our culture in artefacts.
These keychains make pretty good, unique souvenirs from Singapore for our foreigner friends instead of tacky I Love SG T-shirts at Chinatown.
For cat lovers, you will be excited to see such a cute dedicated feline corner.
Fleeeee away on an orange airplane!
This ancient television set (so fat!) was acquired only recently and placed proudly before their counter.
The lady boss behind this lovely cafe - she sourced for every piece of decoration found in the shop. It's really impressive because there are so many items, I don't think one cafe visit is enough for me to look closely at everything.
Flee Away Cafe hosted the food tasting event co-organized by OpenSnap and Nikon Singapore!
Nikon Singapore displaying their legion of many Coolpix series cameras! I don't think I ever saw so many cameras congregate together except in Courts or Harvey Norman.
The cameras with red metallic bodies attracted me the most - such a feminine and strong colour!
We also got to play around with them! I picked up this heavyweight to play around and test its functions!
I shoot my photos with my Canon D550, which is my first DSLR so I didn't have the chance to compare it with Nikon DSLRs before. Their functions and buttons are located differently so I needed sometime to get used to it. One thing I liked about this camera is the high ISO (12800) and smart focus differentiating subjects and background, giving it a natural "pro" photo even without much aesthetic skills - just point and shoot!
You know how annoying it is when your phone's camera just isn't good enough and you want to upload quality images onto Facebook/ Instagram? This is when Wifi function in a camera becomes very important. Since I tried using Nikon Coolpix P7800 previously, I was already very excited about their in-built Wifi function! Here is Daniel, one of the talented tech guys from Nikon showing us how it works!
Some Nikon cameras have the function, while the rest can become Wifi-friendly once you attach a dongle to it. You have to download a mobile app to detect the camera and from there, whatever that your camera is pointing at will be reflected on your phone itself! How cool is that?
All the cameras! Which one catches your eye the most? ;)
Reka from OpenSnap hosting the event!
The Sweet Potato Salad kicked off the night, a healthy and refreshing dish drizzled with vinaigrette dressing.
The Tau Kwa Salad is a more creative version with crispily toasted tofu nestled among the vegetables.
After seeing the third dish, I felt glad that this cafe is indeed quite different from the run-of-the-mill cafes that mushroomed overnight across the island. They had their distinctive edge and differentiate themselves with the interior design and the menu too. Beef Hash Pie Tee is an extension of the Nonya dish Kueh Pie Tee, but with chopped up beef meat marinated in savoury fashion. I didn't pair it with the little pastry shells because it didn't look like there was enough to go around (just being polite on first encounter with the others, with more familiar friends I'll take it with no qualms). The beef was a little dry, possibly because it was prepared well ahead of time and lost its moisture already. Nevertheless, the taste itself was delicious.
Le Char Kuey with Dry Laksa takes the crown and is extremely recommended. I would dare say I haven't had such a good sandwich in a cafe before - they always run into issues like dryness/too hard/tasteless/uninteresting/uninspired. This sandwich that Flee Away Cafe does is definitely interesting and gave my tastebuds a little jolt to life. There were springy noodles inside with a hint of spiciness and the familiar laksa taste! I think they will do very well cooking the real thing itself too.
This received mixed reviews from my table, some liked it but I found it a little strange. It's meaty crisps that were a little soggy. Thumbs up for the creativity and courage, but taste-wise it's "not very mainstream".
Their Waffle with Gula Melaka Pudding is another out-of-the-world creation. The waffle was not exactly the sort with a crispy exterior and fluffy batter, but more had a thoroughly soft and semi-soggy texture, though not in a bad way. The little sago ball cluster on the waffle was slightly weird but hey, don't we keep digging for sago in many desserts like bobo chacha or mango pomelo sago? Now we have all of them grouped together for convenience. It's a little crafty to use coconut milk and gula melaka syrup because in this part of the world, desserts like these rule... even if the presentation seemed rather random. I don't really know what to make out of this, except I polished the plate off. #DessertFanHere
The more popular and mainstream dessert is this: Irish Cream Mud Pie, also the one I will recommend as a safe choice. This mud pie is actually ice-cream cake in disguise, and sprinkled with chocolate flakes and sauce... who can resist? I know I can't.
So - the verdict on Flee Away Cafe? I think it definitely makes for a unique cafe hopping experience that doesn't involve the typical bicycle-naked-lightbulbs-eggs-benedict kind of combination, and keeps conversations alive with so many things to look at! Food-wise, go with the Le Char Kuey with Dry Laksa and Irish Cream Mud Pie, and the awesome experience is yours to keep.
Flee Away Cafe
70 Dunlop Street
Singapore 209398
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