Overview
At around 11am on Sunday morning, we ventured into the CBD for a light brunch and more importantly, patbingsu. From Fresh's rather no-nonsense basic breakfast menu, we chose the American Comfort ($15.50) which also came with a free coffee – bonus. This entailed crumb-coated deep-fried chicken breasts with some green leaves between thick buttermilk waffles. At first glance, I’ll be honest; the no-frills aspect did make me doubt how good it would be. But we were pleasantly surprised – less is more, right? If ever someone made this in their home kitchen, I imagine this would be more or less what it would taste like (no one has ever made me waffles – deprived child, I know). The subtle sweetness of the thick and soft waffles (they gave me the urge to roll my face on to them like the viral “bread face” blogger) complemented the savoury chicken and sauce. It was pretty darn good and filling too. Once again, we learn that it’s all in the simple things.
Though I wasn’t feeling too adventurous to try Chinese burgers on a Sunday morning, I had to because the waitress said they were good and I have a crippling case of FOMO for food… ah, what it is to be a millennial aye? Made with traditional cooking techniques from Xi’an, China, the meat is stewed for over 10 hours in a soup base with over 20 spices and seasonings. I tried the spice marinated pork burger which came with a coffee and side salad and though my socks weren’t blown off of my feet, I reckon it would do the trick for a light lunch. The only peculiar thing about it was that there was no dressing on the salad and my flat white was different, in taste and size, to the flat white my S.O. ordered.
To finish off the brunch, and to fulfil my main objective of coming to Fresh, we ordered an injeolmi sulbing to share ($14.50). This traditional Korean dessert consists of frozen milk shaved into extremely fine flakes with sweet toppings. Usually, the toppings include various seasonal fruit, sweet red bean paste, ice-cream, injeolmi powder, rice cake and condensed milk. As of late, the bingsu has evolved into a new modern transformation stripping it into only a couple of toppings – we learn the lesson again, less is more. The injeolmi sulbing with homemade rice cake, slivered almonds and extra red Azuki beans was the taste of home. Prepare yourself for some sweet sharp brain freeze as you plow through a big bad bowl of shaved frozen milk.