Brunch at Cocotte Wanderlust Hotel

Cocotte | The Moonberry Blog

I took a break from what was an unexpectedly eventful week last week and had brunch on Sunday at Cocotte. After all the social media brouhaha taking place last week (in which I found myself to be right at the eye of the storm), I just wanted to find a chill quiet place to let my hair down and spend the weekend in the company of good food + zero drama. I had written about Cocotte before when a friend treated me to a birthday lunch there, I loved the food and enjoyed the vibe of the restaurant. So off I went with my partner in tow this time to have a relaxing weekend brunch together.

Cocotte’s cuisine takes inspiration from the hearty, rustic meals that are a trademark of the French countryside. Provenance and seasonality are focal points in guiding the menu and the way the food is served. Brunch is available every Saturday and Sunday, 11.30am to 3pm. You can view the full Cocotte brunch menu here.

There were tons of items on the menu that jumped out at me, everything sounded super delish. How to decide, how to decide? In the end, we settled for the following:

Fried Tripe: slow-cooked until tender, then coated with crisp breadcrumbs. Served with Tomato Coulis.

For the uninitiated, tripe is the stomach lining of an ox, cow, or other ruminant, prepared for cooking. It’s usually pretty tough and rubbery, difficult to chew and one must know how to prepare this properly in the kitchen. The few times I have tried cooking this at home usually resulted in very tough chewy texture so it’s not one of my fave ingredients to use for personal home cooking. However, I love it and have had the good fortune to enjoy them skewered as satay, in soup (such as Soto) as well as grilled Korean-style in the past. And then there’s also the Cantonese dim sum version of it steamed with garlic, ginger and scallion — a perennial personal fave of mine.

This was the first time I had it coated with breadcrumbs and fried. And it was delicious. The tripe had indeed been slow-cooked until tender and the tomato coulis accompaniment went really well with it.

Half Loaf Brioche + Wild Blueberry Ardéche Jam + Couple of Poached Eggs

I was at The Plain earlier last week for breakfast with a couple of pals and was sorely disappointed that they ran out of eggs!!! :0 *GASPS* How could they be out of eggs?! AIYAHHH. Breakfast without eggs is like having sex without an orgasm. SO.FRIGGIN.UNSATISFYING.HELLO!!! :

Not at Cocotte though. I ordered a couple of poached eggs to even out my earlier disappointment factor and also ordered a side of brioche to dip into the oozy egg. The brioche was fa-fa-fa-fabulous! Perfectly toasted, beautiful color, soft spongy texture. Flavor-wise, it was a tad on the sweet side for me but that’s a-okay.

Foie Gras Egg Cocotte with Beet Relish

Given that the restaurant name is Cocotte, which is a small fireproof dish in which individual portions of food are cooked and served, we ordered the foie gras egg cocotte with beet relish which was the star dish of the day for us. Generous chunks of foie gras! This dish is best shared, trust me. Very tasty and I love the rustic presentation as well. My partner enjoyed this tremendously as well, and I also got inspired to try making my own egg cocotte at home. I don’t reckon it will be too difficult to make an egg cocotte at home and I want to learn how to whip some up one day. Brunch at Casa Moonberry, ha!

I know breakfast or brunch ain’t complete without coffee, but I am a tea drinker lah. Unfortunately Cocotte doesn’t have a broad variety of tea choices for me, so I went for my default Peppermint Tea.

And here’s the thing I didn’t like. They served the tea for me in a cup without tea bag. What does this mean, you ask? Well, I couldn’t ask for a refill of hot water. So when I asked for a second serving, they charged me for a second cup. -____-” Tsk.