Sunday, October 28, 2012

Life in B.E.D. - Bread Espresso Dessert


My makan gang is back with full gusto recently and we are ready to sample the latest F&B addition in Ipoh. Yup, a few new F&B has made its foothold in Ipoh, some franchise while some are the brainchild of young food entrepreneurs. Blogging on this post certainly saved me from the Sunday nite blues kicking in after a great weekend, particularly the whole of Sunday which I spent 7am to 7pm outside of home! After waking up early to lead praise and worship in church, its time to laze around and enjoy the remaining bits of the weekend. After all, my weekend class in FMM for Certificate in Safety and Health Officer is over.

Today, I present to you B.E.D, a cafe situated in Bandar Ipoh Raya, the "business centre" after YMCA and just behind the Bangunan Perak. B.E.D is actually an acronym for (B)read (E)spresso (D)essert. It is managed by 3 youngsters (Elaine, Mok and ShiYun) with different specialty and portfolio - Yup, the 3 portfolio are the ones which form the cafe's name.

Mushroom Quiche - RM4.50. The portion is quite small. Even a small eater wouldn't have  trouble finishing it for tea time. The filling is more like omellette/custart type like without much fragrance of cheese and cream. Taste-wise it was quite bland. I would rate it just around average. There are Salmon Quiche and Chicken Quiche, not sure they will redeem some credits and do some justice. So far, Tammy Kitchen is still my gang's top pick for Quiche.

The Smoked Salmon Bread (RM8.50) uses its own freshly baked house bread (RM2 for a plain roll). The bread is crusty at the exterior but with a slight chewy centre, the airholes structure resembles a bit like the Yau Char Kuai (fried cruellers). Not really the typical bread/bun you will be expecting, its like a cross between choux pastry and bread. Hehe, okay I'm a bit poor in describing it. Why not you try it on your own? The sandwich is laced with wasabi mayonnaise for that slight "kick" sensation, with tomatoes and lettuce to make it a complete meal on its own. Smoked salmon were thicker than expected, which is a good thing =) There are other options like Tuna, Chicken Ham, Roast Chicken for other fillings.

They have hot and cold beverages, from coffee, tea, chocolate to bottled fruit juices. Mocha (RM8.80), Latte (RM6.80) and Cappuccino (RM6.80) are our picks. We can't really give further comments because we are not so exposed into art of coffee drinking and appreciation. But I must commend their friendly service, the barista not only obliged to create 3 different coffee art pattern, he somehow managed to pick the colour of our cups which so happen meet our personal favourite colour. Coupled with our handphone coloured casings, our table has a myriad of vibrant colours. I managed to glimpse the other 2 table next to mine, their cups also were in different colour than us. And I noticed a Panda face coffee art O.O

Their tables are kinda small as they do not really serve main course here. What you see is what you will be getting. They have a Today's Special board, so do check out for specialty. Too bad, there was no Hokkaido Cheese Cake for today. Not only that was missing, I feel that many items were not available today maybe due to a private birthday function was taking place and they are busily catering to the needs of that crowd. If you notice, they have 2 desserts creatively named "Single and Available" and "In a Relationship", can you guess what are this 2 items? =)

Bread were freshly baked everyday! Their business hours commenced from 11am daily. I reach around 12pm and just a couple of things were ready only. Luckily we were early as by 1pm+, this place is full as there have limited table and seats. After all, they have only 3 people upfront (not to sure about the kitchen though)

For desserts w ehad the Creme Brulee (RM5.80) and Banana Frangipane (RM7.80). Google told me that a Frangipane is derivative from custard tart, usually flavoured with almonds/pistachio. Filling may vary as the review from Motormouth showed a coconut version, whereas besides the banana, the cherry and blueberry version are also available for today. Slightly above average, the banana complemented well with the crumbly pastry which is not too sweet. The Creme Brulee however is a bit on the sweeter side. As creme brulee literally means Burnt Cream, the coarse brown sugar at the top surface is usually caramelized with a torch. I'm not sure if there are other alternatives in creating the burnt sugar layer. However, there is a major flaw in this version, they sprinkled too much brown sugar resulting into the annoying feeling of biting into sugar particles which are left caramelized. =/

We did not wait for the Fruit Brand (a fruit like tart) to be available as I think they are freaking busy entertaining the private function. The total damage was RM50 for the items featured, still cheaper than Indulgence and Burps and Giggles. The environment is kinda cosy but they could improve on the air conditioning system as the tables near the glass door is kinda hot and lacked air movement.
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So now Ipohian have a new spot for chit chatting in the afternoon, as this cafe only opens from 11am to 5:30pm daily, except for Tuesday, which is their rest day. For further info, this is their website: 
https://www.facebook.com/BreadEspressoDessert

Have a great week ahead everybody! ^^

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