I have had a long and complicated relationship with coffee. It started as an offshoot of my mom's relationship with coffee - which is an intense one. She couldn't really talk before her coffee. That didn't seem appealing to me. I wasn't interested to try.
Freshman year of college, Shana, my roommate drank coffee which I thought smelled awful, and I was still very not interested. My sophomore year I took an Arabic Literature in Translation class which required external stimulation, and my buddy in that class (Dan Messinger) suggested a mocha each Tuesday and Thursday before class. It made it WAY more interesting and I loved it (the drink and the class!). Soon mochas were too expensive to have twice a week and I moved reluctantly to coffee. Then I realized if Arabic Literature in Translation was interesting...perhaps life could just be more interesting with coffee...so alas, I became a daily drinker.
I have tried to go off coffee a few times, and I was even successful sometimes, perhaps for weeks at a time, but once INSEAD started, there was no hope without coffee. Then I had a job which required sitting at a computer nearly all day...coffee required. I had tried to go off when I was pregnant with Samara, but my colleagues told me I yawned too loudly. With this pregnancy too, I tried to not drink coffee for a week in New Zealand when I found out I was pregnant...but I just wasn't a happy or nice person. Forget it. The research says one or two cups a day is ok, and I value relationships (and again, I'm just not that nice without coffee).
I love the local coffee here in Singapore, though the butter (or whatever they do to make it taste so good) combined with the sweetened condensed milk didn't make my body feel too good.
When Samara was born, my mom found Ben and his yummy coffee. I stuck with that for a while, until I really thought it wasn't good for my body. We also inherited a gorgeous espresso machine from Ari when he left town. I started making my own lattes, and as a super treat, I would get a latte at the Spinelli coffee shop at work (it's actually good enough coffee) and on the weekend I would sometimes treat myself to a great coffee at the cafe across the park, right behind our building.
Recently, the coffee shop behind our house (which lacked in atmosphere, but the coffee was EXCELLENT) closed. I had advised them to please open before 10am and perhaps to even advertise or have a sign on their shop...but alas, they disagreed and didn't make it past two years. I needed to find a new local coffee shop that could make me happy, especially once the baby is born and I need adventures to get out of the house and things to look forward to when I'm super tired (and as much as I want this baby, it's going to be a hard few months!).
A few weekends ago Matt and I went for a walk on a Friday night and we checked out some new boutique hotels near us (remember, all parents are coming for the upcoming bris...) and saw that a bunch of new coffee shops and restaurants had also opened in our "turning hip" neighborhood. Saturday morning we had to get Sam out of the house (she was still in her AWFUL stage of not wanting to do anything or do nothing, which is thankfully over), so we checked out one of them, the Coffee Stop or Coffee Shop or something...on Lavendar Rd. Atmosphere had potential if there were actually people there. Menu was super limited. Coffee was good, but they didn't have skim or low-fat milk AND it was $6 for a coffee. We tried it and rested in the air con by the window. Eh.
About ten minutes in, and just as we were finishing our drinks and Sam needed to get out, a friend of Matt's from grad school walked by, saw us and came in. We asked where he was going - and he said he was going to check out a great coffee shop he had read about in this neighborhood. Done. We tagged along, saw it was in an old hardware shop (definitely no sign that it's a coffee shop unless you go inside!), opposite a Nepalese temple where Sam and I often go to visit Buddha, about seven minutes walk from our house. It looked super cool. It's Chye Seng Huat Hardware, and it has the atmosphere of an Australian coffee shop, GREAT coffee, and it turns out they have great french toast too, since we went back the next day for breakfast. I have now been three times, and I love it more each time. Though they open at 9, and I believe you have to get there before 10 - when I tried to just get a quick take-away coffee at 11 last weekend there were about 20 people in the queue!
Other coffee that makes me happy in Singapore includes the Tiong Bahru Bakery. Sadly, I haven't been to their actual shop in Tiong Bahru, but they have an outlet at Raffles City Mall, and they have EXCELLENT coffee and also excellent treats. As I walked there this morning, I passed lots of people at Deli France, Cedele and Starbucks in the same mall, and I wanted to tell them that they didn't know what they are missing (though it is pricy...it's worth it for me!). Their only fault is that they don't do decaf, which is hard if you have already had your allotment for the day.
When we moved here it was hard to find good western coffee and I frequented Starbucks. Now that more of these exist, or at least now that I have found them, I am so happy to support them and I hope to utilize my maternity leave and Samara's school time to find more.
Freshman year of college, Shana, my roommate drank coffee which I thought smelled awful, and I was still very not interested. My sophomore year I took an Arabic Literature in Translation class which required external stimulation, and my buddy in that class (Dan Messinger) suggested a mocha each Tuesday and Thursday before class. It made it WAY more interesting and I loved it (the drink and the class!). Soon mochas were too expensive to have twice a week and I moved reluctantly to coffee. Then I realized if Arabic Literature in Translation was interesting...perhaps life could just be more interesting with coffee...so alas, I became a daily drinker.
I have tried to go off coffee a few times, and I was even successful sometimes, perhaps for weeks at a time, but once INSEAD started, there was no hope without coffee. Then I had a job which required sitting at a computer nearly all day...coffee required. I had tried to go off when I was pregnant with Samara, but my colleagues told me I yawned too loudly. With this pregnancy too, I tried to not drink coffee for a week in New Zealand when I found out I was pregnant...but I just wasn't a happy or nice person. Forget it. The research says one or two cups a day is ok, and I value relationships (and again, I'm just not that nice without coffee).
I love the local coffee here in Singapore, though the butter (or whatever they do to make it taste so good) combined with the sweetened condensed milk didn't make my body feel too good.
When Samara was born, my mom found Ben and his yummy coffee. I stuck with that for a while, until I really thought it wasn't good for my body. We also inherited a gorgeous espresso machine from Ari when he left town. I started making my own lattes, and as a super treat, I would get a latte at the Spinelli coffee shop at work (it's actually good enough coffee) and on the weekend I would sometimes treat myself to a great coffee at the cafe across the park, right behind our building.
During this pregnancy, I realized I was making lattes with really dark, and a lot of, espresso, and I had no idea how much caffeine they had. I had remembered that Ari said it's something like four shots per filled cup...and I thought I might be damaging the baby and decided to put the machine away until the baby is out and I am more comfortable having loads of caffeine.
Recently, the coffee shop behind our house (which lacked in atmosphere, but the coffee was EXCELLENT) closed. I had advised them to please open before 10am and perhaps to even advertise or have a sign on their shop...but alas, they disagreed and didn't make it past two years. I needed to find a new local coffee shop that could make me happy, especially once the baby is born and I need adventures to get out of the house and things to look forward to when I'm super tired (and as much as I want this baby, it's going to be a hard few months!).
A few weekends ago Matt and I went for a walk on a Friday night and we checked out some new boutique hotels near us (remember, all parents are coming for the upcoming bris...) and saw that a bunch of new coffee shops and restaurants had also opened in our "turning hip" neighborhood. Saturday morning we had to get Sam out of the house (she was still in her AWFUL stage of not wanting to do anything or do nothing, which is thankfully over), so we checked out one of them, the Coffee Stop or Coffee Shop or something...on Lavendar Rd. Atmosphere had potential if there were actually people there. Menu was super limited. Coffee was good, but they didn't have skim or low-fat milk AND it was $6 for a coffee. We tried it and rested in the air con by the window. Eh.
About ten minutes in, and just as we were finishing our drinks and Sam needed to get out, a friend of Matt's from grad school walked by, saw us and came in. We asked where he was going - and he said he was going to check out a great coffee shop he had read about in this neighborhood. Done. We tagged along, saw it was in an old hardware shop (definitely no sign that it's a coffee shop unless you go inside!), opposite a Nepalese temple where Sam and I often go to visit Buddha, about seven minutes walk from our house. It looked super cool. It's Chye Seng Huat Hardware, and it has the atmosphere of an Australian coffee shop, GREAT coffee, and it turns out they have great french toast too, since we went back the next day for breakfast. I have now been three times, and I love it more each time. Though they open at 9, and I believe you have to get there before 10 - when I tried to just get a quick take-away coffee at 11 last weekend there were about 20 people in the queue!
Other coffee that makes me happy in Singapore includes the Tiong Bahru Bakery. Sadly, I haven't been to their actual shop in Tiong Bahru, but they have an outlet at Raffles City Mall, and they have EXCELLENT coffee and also excellent treats. As I walked there this morning, I passed lots of people at Deli France, Cedele and Starbucks in the same mall, and I wanted to tell them that they didn't know what they are missing (though it is pricy...it's worth it for me!). Their only fault is that they don't do decaf, which is hard if you have already had your allotment for the day.
When we moved here it was hard to find good western coffee and I frequented Starbucks. Now that more of these exist, or at least now that I have found them, I am so happy to support them and I hope to utilize my maternity leave and Samara's school time to find more.
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