MINI Treats: Makansutra Breakfast Trail

what could possibly make any sane person hop out of bed at 615am on a saturday morning? well, cars and food create an excellent combination for a weekend morning wake-up call, especially if it means driving to different location for eats.



MINI teams up with the Makansutra team for another food trail. However, rather than dinner like the last one, they've decided on breakfast as the theme this year.

it's obvious the true-blue MINI owners were equally enthusiastic, since by the time we got to the MINI Habitat, it was already packed to the brim.



Not being MINI owners, we were packed three journos to a car - a Cooper S manual - and the plan was to alternate for the duration of the half day event... until i realised navigation wasn't really my cup of tea, hence...



moreover we were one-man down when the third occupant was too sick to get out of bed.

Suffice to say, we were stuffed even before the half-way mark (TEN stops in total). the drive brought us from the industrial scrap-yards of Defu Lane to the HDB heartlands of Bedok and Jurong West and the hustle and bustle of Chinatown. The food ranged from prata to chapati to bak kut teh to chwee kueh and much much more. the mind, not to mention the stomach, boggled at the variety.

Before you think it was a straightforward convoy from point to point, think again. we were made to solve clues that would point the way to each destination. Makansutra reps at each point would only hand-over the next clue when 75 per cent of the dish was finished.

but in our case, well, we made it clear to our hotline operator that we were only in it for the food and not in the running for the competition, so he basically gave away the destinations as we were finishing up at the preceding stops. it got to the point when he started calling US to check on our progress! LOL

the most astounding fact was, even with our ahem, cheating, there were always some other MINI owners ahead of us and we're pretty sure they didnt get any outside help!

anyway, some snap-shots of the food:







meeting back at the Habitat around 2pm ended the day for us. prizes presented, friendships forged, but by then, everything was in a sort of a blur and i could sense my soft bed at home beckoning.

Fast Facts: MINI Cooper S
Engine: 1598cc, 4-cylinder, turbocharged
Maximum power: 175bhp at 5500rpm
Maximum torque: 260Nm at 1700-4500rpm (overboost)
Transmission: 6-speed manual
0-100km/h: 7.3 seconds
Top speed: 220km/h
LxBxH: 3714x1683x1407 mm
Wheelbase: 2467mm
Kerbweight: 1230kg
Price: POA
Agent: Trans Eurokars Pte. Ltd., tel: 6473 3777

Audi's Coupe de'tat: Audi A5/S5 part I

oh well, an early trip into frankfurt (5am) meant we had 6 hours to spend languishing in the lounge before the flight to Verona. First up, breakfast:


... and when u have 6 hours to kill, you generally find ways to keep oneself entertained! :)


before long, it's boarding time again, which means going through the whole inspection/x-ray/full cavity search rigmarole

In verona, a spanking fleet of A8s are waiting to take us to the hotel. They consist of a mix of W12 and TDi variants. We got the former:


a bit of the hotel (Due Torri Hotel Baglioni, Verona) main foyer:


And with effectively half a free day before us ahead of the drive tomorrow, we take in the sights of the city including the purported balcony where Romeo romanced Juliet:


AND gorged ourselves on all manner of roadside delicacies... and this was before dinner!


... followed by dinner itself at Antica Bottega Del Vino (www.bottegavini.it). the lobster buccatini was quickly wolfed down but i had enough presence of mind to snap this quick and dirty image of the main (guinea fowl)... although it wasn't quite as satisfying as the pasta. Their specialty's horse meat, which wasn't as game-y as i'd have expected.

Honey Roasted: BMW 335i Convertible

Well, that's how dark one would get driving around top-down in the 335i Convertible. It's a retractable hard-top now by the way, as opposed to rag-top the E46 was stuck with, although most traditionalists would prefer a soft-top. the hard-top adds a decent degree of rigidity to the chassis though. thankfully, the backside doesn't look as heavy or droopy-bottomed as some of the other hardtop convertibles in the market.


So rather than be burnt to a golden brown crisp, the next closest thing is...?

A hearty lunch of BBQ char siew and roast duck of course, at Alex Eating House along Beach Road, a place I've heard a lot about from their many fans.


the place was packed and the service, slow. the meat was a little too salty for my tastes too. i think ill stick to my usual bbq meat fix in Ubi where the meat is juicy and flavourful without recourse to too much salt.

Thankfully, there was this to get back to after lunch:


Fast Facts: BMW 335i Convertible
Engine: 2979, 24-valves, in-line 6, twin turbocharged
Maximum power: 306bhp at 5800rpm
Maximum torque: 400Nm at 1300-5000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed Steptronic
0-100km/h: 6.0 seconds
Top speed: 250km/h
Price: $265,800
Agent: Performance Motors Ltd., 6319-0100

Axed-Caliber: Dodge Caliber

It's hard to understand the appeal of American cars. Well, the Dodge Caliber 'hatchback' was our transport over the weekend. It certainly has a bold and commanding presence and draws all eyes to it, especially with the loud stickers that have been plastered around the car.

A rainy saturday afternoon saw us travelling to clementi central in search of the elusive 'tanglin halt chicken cutlet' (past trips have seen us arriving on a) the wrong day and b) after they closed). so we were gratified to find them open for business when we showed up.

Back to the caliber: inside the cabin, it's easy to discover how the yanks have managed to cut costs even further. there's plastic everywhere, hard, crusty, tacky, and precious little in the manner of aesthetics. a let-down considering how the japanese and europeans have worked towards cabin embellishment and view cars as something more than A-B transport.

Dodge vehicles are targeted at the young and hip, but i wonder if it will see much success in this demographic. i don't remember the PT Cruiser featuring similar standards of build quality. the materials used in the PT were actually quite decent.

The engine works hard under pedal-to-metal acceleration but the caliber never feels like it is going anywhere fast despite the rev-needle climbing high (the CVT ensures the revs never fall during upshifts) and a raucous engine note as accompaniment.

In the words of my better half, "it's making a lot of noise, but we don't seem to be moving anywhere fast!"

Fast Facts: Dodge Caliber SXT

Engine: 1998cc, 16-valves, 4-cyl

Max power: 158bhp at 6400rpm

Max torque: 191Nm at 5000rpm

LxBxH: 4414 x 1748 x 1534 mm

Wheelbase: 2635mm

Little Green Friend: Mitsubish iCar

this little tyke was our companion for a foray into clementi for food tonight. Highway trawls are comfortable and the 660cc turbocharged 3-cylinder engine is more than adequate to cruise with ease in this lightweight kei-car.

the styling is cute and compact and really embodies the japanese culture: innovative packaging, thoughtful ergonomics and kawaii styling. It even seats 5 with ease and is unique enough on our roads. what more can you ask for in the S$50k price segment?

don't listen to morons who insist on perpetuating inaccuracies involving the inadequacies of sub-1Litre cars to hustle with any urgency. Acceleration is brisk enough and anoraks might like to know that the iCar is rear-wheel drive and features a rear mounted engine (just like Porsche 911s and the original VW Beetle). it's the ideal city runabout on the busy urban streets of downtown singapore.

Tanglin Halt Western Food was our target, so it was a bummer to find it closed when we got there. We headed over to the Clementi branch of Botak Jones instead to satisfy our western food cravings.

Short queue, but when it was our turn to order, we were rather brusquely told that inexplicably enough, they had run out of buns, so all burger meals would come without buns. Oh well, fish and chips comes in a close second i guess...

this is a montage created with pictures from an earlier iCar photoshoot.