This is a day of mixed feelings for me. It's the kind of time that you feel so happy to be leaving and looking forward to the next phase in life, yet so sad to leave because you've spent time and effort at some place, thus find it maddening hard to say goodbye. Alas, we are all too familiar with it!
So for the 3rd time in my life, I made my way over to Canteen 2, one of the oldest, and arguably the most famous canteen on campus, if not most popular, due to its inconvenient location after the school expanded decades ago. My exam hall was just a stone's throw away, kind of opposite from Can 2, as we affectionately know our canteens as.
So what's so great about Can 2? Why did I make a special "last day" trip there?
All the simplest things in life. =)
Canteen 2. I can never understand why canteens bother to give names in school. We still know them by numbers and alphabets no matter what pattern they come out with.
Every freshmen would hear of the legendary waffles, half-boiled egg breakfast, Western and Beef Ball Noodles. And having eaten them all before, except for beef balls, since I don't eat beef, I can vouch that they do live up to the accolade, other than the Western, which is supposedly from Old Airport Road.
Here is my parting meal, in toast to the school, the friends, the professors, the greenery, the bus drivers. That's all! haha, I am NOT going to say the "and finally, thank you EVERYBODY" Star Award speech. hahaha.
Waffle Pancake
Deliciously green, nicely browned and crispy sides.
Flavours: peanut butter, kaya, chocolate, blueberry, cheese, lemon, orange, and many more!
Price: flavoured ones are all $1.50. Ice cream ones is up to $3.70 for 3 scoops (the scoops are huge).
Other popular order from aunty: Hotdog bun, Ice Cream Waffle
Looks
If you watch Aunty making this, you would already be drawn in by the mint green colour of her batter. A lot of pandan and a lot of egg whites.
When you see her taking your waffle out of the pan, you will WOW! at how hard it looks, because of the way she handles it with the food thongs. This waffle can't even bend and close up properly when just cooked.
And then you sit down, open up the white paper bag in anticipation, and there is what you see. =) Green, nicely 50% browned large squares with ultra crispy edges.
Rating: 5/5
Taste
Depending on what flavour you buy, you may or may not like yours. But so far, I've tried plain, peanut butter, cheese, blueberry, strawberry, chocolate and orange. The lemon was sold out at tea time, so I guess that should be quite the best seller.
While the cheese is just a slice of cheese from the packet kind, the chocolate is real chocolate and not Nutella, the orange, blueberry and strawberry are all well-flavoured spreads that do not taste like your normal supermarket jam. (Nutella is not chocolate as it only has a relatively small amount of cocoa powder by mass, and its heaviest weight component is none other than the hazelnut spread.)
Also, the waffle plain is already very nice, because of the thin crisp on the skin, and strong pandan flavour. It is slightly oily, but just a bit. Without oil, a lot of taste would be gone.
Orange spread, and notice that ultra crispy edge at the end?
Amount
I actually don't like the way hawkers scrimp on the spreads nowadays by only applying them on one side. =( They didn't use to do that a few years ago. But oh well, policemen wore trousers in the past... Times really have changed.
However, this compensated well for the less than desirable amount because it is still tasty enough. And we should have a healthier lifestyle. haha.
Rating: 4.5/5
Crisp
This is the ONE thing that I believe Singaporeans are looking out for. It's kind of strange how we became so fussy about crisp in everything from the charred edges of char siew to the golden brown of roast pork, the caramelized skin of roast duck, Belgium waffles, French Fries, traditional toast (till the point of biscuit), burger bun bread... ... (Does this list ever ends??? haha.)
And yes, the reason why I put this waffle on pedestal, almost worship status (nah, I wouldn't worship a waffle. Just maybe my holy grail waffle... lol.), is because of the unbeatable crisp. I hardly think something this good can be found outside, where the commercialized world is, and hawkers are about how many pieces of waffles at the lowest costs rather than good tasting food.
Rating: 5/5
Can I give 6?
The thing about this waffle, is that Aunty herself knows it's hugely popular! She was asking me why no queue today. As she normally sees the snaking queue coming in after the exams, when people just want to eat. At night, slightly after dinner time, you really have to wait looong looong for this. It's like the "I can't pass by Can 2 without buying that, or else it's wasted walk all the way here" kind of mentality.
Such is the status of this waffle, that it gets invited to our on-campus carnivals/fairs. And if you advertise your event with complimentary Canteen 2 waffles, you can bet people will turn up. =)
The Secret
To honestly tell, this is no secret. All decent bakers or cooking-lovers would have somehow heard of the hot-cold and/or cold-hot transition that always seems to be the key to an extra *bling* to your delicacy. All you have to do for a crispier waffle, is to mix your batter with cold water if you need to add water, then refrigerate it.
What I saw Aunty did was to leave two tubs of batter outside, one for scooping, the other, just leave it. She doesn't finishes her batter. When she has used it to half-full, she refilled it with the batter from the 2nd tub. Then she opens the refrigerator, sitting inside are another handful of tubs, she takes a cold one out. From this cold one, she refilled the 2nd tub. Now, this 3rd tub would only be left with half. Then from the 1st now-full tub, she refilled the 3rd cold tub. She left the 1st and 2nd tub aside, mix the batter of the 3rd cold tub well, and she now scoops from that 3rd tub!
2nd stall on the left of the entrance.
Of course this is not the entire secret. It still has got to do with the ingredients ratio, and all, since hers is superbly generously tasty. I just thought that the sight I describe above is like a wonderful confirmation of the open secret I have long heard of.
Overall rating: 10/10
When I first ate this, I know there is not going to be something else that will beat it... It's that kind of feeling of when you found a Holy Grail skincare product or foundation, and you just know you will stick to it for years and years.
West-side foodies should definitely make a trip in. It's not that difficult if you go to Jurong Point enough. Just a bus in, plus the cheaper meals on campus too...
In fact, I think waffles are like the pandan cakes of Gen-Y. We seriously are obsessed about waffles. There is cafe restaurant that actually sells waffles and waffles alone! It's waffles buffet some more. And waffles are so easy to make they have become a standard fixture at your neighbourhood bakery. Everybody is buying one, they even sell the single pan at Harvey Norman for home use. But to make a good waffles, that's really few and far between. One can only make good food if one cares and has the heart to.
******
I didn't buy the Western, as I tried the also-famous fish and chips once, really no good. My friend says the beef balls are normal only as well. I'd recommend non-students who go in for food, to ride the shuttle bus up to North Spine, MacDonald's air-con canteen for Inodnesian BBQ or Japanese Eel Don, or Tom Yum Ban Mian, or Chicken Chop rice. The Indo BBQ is THE one. The rest are about 4/5 with my ratings.
If you take the bus alllll the way down to Canteen B/Business School Canteen, the chicken rice and yong tau foo are the good ones by canteen standards. The single steamboat meal is also hot hot favourite amongst the students. We like to celebrate good days with a filling meal in a self-cook Seoul Garden style, except that this is steamboat. You could always get a cup of good soymilk from Mr Bean there too. Don't forget sugarcane juice if you go early. This sells like hotcakes, always out of stock too. (It's just sugarcane, but you can't really get sugarcane nowadays unless you live around old old markets like Bedok Interchange.)
Wow, so I managed a good 2 paragraphs on what to eat in school!
Will continue with 1-minute reviews on the rest of the food today:
Chicken Rice + Char Siew
The chicken is really soft, and has no trace of blood. This alone scores very well with me, even though it's bland on the inside. The rice is on the whole tasty, but not the absolutely chicken oil coated and fragrance kind. The char siew is not bad, has a good balanced sweet taste, but isn't crispy, and has quite a lot of fats as well. The chili is spicy, but too sour.
Close up to look at the rice. Non-yellow = will not be so nice. But you can see the glistening char siew.
Rating: 6/10
Next up, is my obsession with cheesecake, the tendency to buy no matter how bad I feel it will be... Not really. This one looks really good, and the texture IS good.
Bailey's Cheesecake $3
Amazingly nice cheesecake from school. The other two, at Nanyang Auditorium cafe, and Executive's Cafe are horrible. Very good tofu texture, with spongey look but feels very smooth, with enough chew. However, the cheese taste is close to zero, with a hue of Bailey's... Well, I guess, I really can't expect that guy to pour a shot of Bailey's inside a $3 cake! haha. But I wouldn't buy this again.
Rating: 3/5
Double Chocolate Muffin
I am not a fan of muffins, as I find that always too buttery, and bland in flavour. This is not buttery, but only looks very black, without much chocolate taste. There are a few chocolate chips here and there, which feels good when you find them. Other than that, it was a disappointment, because it really looked so brownie and chocolate-y. =(
Rating: 2.5/5
It would pass as a food.
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