Sarah Lee

I had to post this UBER cute photo of little Sarah....

City Space

I finally got to check out City Space after having wanted to go there for a very long time. But somehow, i always get distracted by New Asia Bar and my legs just walk up to New Asia Bar. LOL... But, that is another story. I really do like City Space. It's high up there, with nice dim lights, good service, drinks not exorbitantly expensive (quite normal pricing for high end bars), nice light house music, and their snackies just rock! The cashews are coated with some sweet stuff and they are served warm, they have some tapioca chip kinda stuff. Their mixed nuts was a bit "lao hong" though... One thing however was that their singer was quite terrible. It was much to our relief when she said it was her last set. Great ambience, great company... The fantastic way to chill out and relax especially after a hard week's work... Ahhh.... The life...

Hot Hot HOT!!!

It is SO HOT today! It doesn't help that I was in the cool comfort (or at some times, the freezing room) of aircon for the whole of yesterday and this morning. The moment I stepped out of the hotel, the first thing that bit me was the sweltering heat and I immediately escaped back into the hotel lobby to enjoy the aircon and wait for my dad. And after my afternoon nap, I was drenched in sweat. HOT HOT HOT!!!!

Broadway Beng 3

Today was the 1st time I caught one of our local productions by Dream Academy, and I enjoyed it so much I that wonder why I never watched our local productions earlier. Now I regret not watching Dim Sum Dollies earlier this year, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming Hossan Leong show. Here's to more local productions! =)

All about donations

I was walking about Vivo City a couple of saturdays ago when I was abruptly stopped by some random guy. And when I say abruptly, I mean really abruptly. I was just walking when this donation bag was shoved into my face and the random guy said "hello". And he said the "hello" is such a way like I knew him or something. I looked up and thought it was some friend only to realize he was just a random guy. That first incidence got me quite put off as I was in my own train of thought and to be suddenly jolted by someone whom I thought was a friend but turned out to be a total stranger was absolutely a nuisance. But since he caught my attention, he went on to explain that he was with blah blah charity and was collecting funds for blah blah. He continued to explain the need for the funds blah blah blah, to which i was more peeved about the initial jolt to even bother about him explaining and I needed to get back to my train of thought. (I was rushing to buy a present for a good friend at Vivo, I didn't know what to buy and I didn't have enough time.) To cut him off from his charity sales talk, I dug out my wallet and opened the coin compartment trying to dig out some coins to drop into the donation bag. And then he said, "I'm sorry, we do not accept coins. We only accept dollar notes, preferable $10 and above." I was so taken aback when I heard this. I retorted, "You are asking for donations, rite? Why should you dictate how much I should donate. I am not obliged to give you anything so I will give anything I want to even if it is coins." He said, "But I'm sorry, we only accept dollar notes. Do you have dollar notes? Like a $10 note?" After being a nuisance and disturbing me from my train of thought and now demanding that I give dollar note donations, I was quite irritated. So I snubbed him off, "Look, I am the one donating. I only want to donate coins, so since you want only dollar notes, then forget it. You're not getting even the coins I wanted to donate although it'll add up to at least a few dollars." With that I walked away much to the astonishment of the guy (he probably thought I would relent and dig out my notes).

To me this whole thing about donations is about what I want to give. You cannot dictate what I should give or how much I should give. Isn't that the basis of donations? It is a gift given on my own free will, my free contribution. And demanding dollar notes, even worst, expecting $10 notes is too much to ask from from the general public. At least $2, I might consider if I have the loose note. And I believe this dollar note rule probably came from the charity. Hey, if u're a charity, u're getting donations from the public, you should be happy with whatever they give you. True, asking for dollar notes may increase your overall donations, but really most people give donation (especially this type of flag donations) out of loose change. Rare ones may give $2 notes or so. And it's not like it was for the Myanmar victims of the cyclone which is more well known, this was some little charity that I can't even remember what it was for. If it were for the Myanmarese victims, at least I would have considered giving the $10.

Back to my story. The guy was taken aback at my reaction and he quickly changed his statement, "Oh, if you have $2 notes also can." Too late boy, you changed your statement too late and I'm standing by my principle on donations. I said, "You guys are too high class a charity for coins, then forget it. You won't even get my $2 note. Go look somewhere else for your $10 note." With that I walked away, really away this time.

SiaSU?

I was at T3 for supper today and as I was headed back to the car I saw this sign on the door which made me and Pet laugh out loud.. Check this out...

OMG! Can you believe an office called SIASU? Gosh... It almost sounds like KIASU. Hahaha.. We were laughing so hard trying to wonder which silly office was named like that. And amidst the laughter I tried desperately to take a photo which was challenging cos I couldn't contain my laughter and more so there was the SIA cabin crew walking pass and we were trying not to be obvious or look silly. In all that midst, we looked up and saw the meaning of SIASU...

They really need to change their name. Rebranding for SIA SU!

Atas Takeout

We ordered into office the other day and got Tiffin Club to cater for lunch. It is really one of the better takeout places, but you also pay more for that and not everyone is a fan of eurasian food. The food is good, but some of the spices can be a little too strong. But, definitely one good takeout place if you can afford to spend at least $25 per set. What really intrigued me, however was the packaging. A pity that it was in office. The material for the take out packaging that they used were really good stuff. The Cardboard box was the thick kind and the plastic containers were good quality. Check it out man!

Lunch...

Mash Potatoes, Fish Pattie in tomato sauce, Couscous, Zucchini and cherry tomatoes...

Wild Rocket @ Mount Emily

I finally came here for lunch the other day after many failed attempts for the past 1 1/2yrs with different bunches of friends to come here. I'll suggest this place, they'll get all excited, but then when they find out where it really is there'll be all sorts of excuses. Not that I'm complaining, but this place isn't the most accessible and for most starting out to work the food is more to the expensive side (I would usually suggest this place, followed by drinks at wild oats, but that has never happened up till now... Maybe one day).

Located on Mount Emily, this whole area is turning up into some arty farty kinda place. It's very near Old School (Singapore Arts Design Events on Mount Sophia) which is the arty farty place for designers to express their work. We parked at the building opposite ( I don't know the name, but it's where Wild Oats is) and on our walk to Hangout Hotel (where Wild Rocket is located), we came across these sculptures on the grass patch and I had to take a photo of it.

Ok, back to the main story. Wild Rocket. Wild Rocket is run by lawyer turned chef, Willin Low who serves simple, unfussy, modern comfortable fusion food. He puts an Asian touch to well known European staples. (Think: Duck Confit with YAM CAKE, and yes, that is your asian yam cake he's referring to; Conpoy chicken and scallops with pasta, Coconut Ice Cream with Gula Meleka, Tiramisu with Kueh buloh, Crab meat with chilli and tomato and the ever famous Singaporean fusion dish... Laksa Pesto)

We came in, ordered the food and were soon served with bread. The bread was warm and fragrant, but in my opinion a tad dry. But I had mine with balsamic vinegar and olive oil (I love my bread with well aged balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, first press. If it's butter, I love it whipped and lightly salted, however, give me balsamic vinegar anytime. There's just something about vinegar... So similar to drinking wine, you can actually feel the flavour burst in your mouth as you swallow it. Sweet, sour, acidic....) and that was good.

The food took a while to come. And when it did come, the servers were in a total fluster not knowing who the serve the dish to. That is one of the things that irk me. Food out of the kitchen should be served immediately and not left sitting around while the servers decide which table it is for. This was what happened that day. First the soups and salads came. They weren't sure who ordered soups, so they just "tikam" and looked around all the tables trying to wonder who ordered the soup. You could see the lost look on their face whilst we were trying desperately to signal to them that we ordered the dish. But no, they didn't get the hint, and instead held the dishes, walked round the restaurant, before relenting, asking the server who took the order which table to serve to. Even after that, they still served it to the wrong person! Goodness, for a restaurant of this standard to have such service is a total disgrace. Maybe it was lunch, that's why. But, the restaurant wasn't even at full capacity and this could happen. The same thing happened with our main courses. We were seated in a long table style, so when they first served it to the front of the table (it was the end of the table which ordered it) and were told they didn't order that dish, they had to bring the dish away, walk around with it, put it back at the counter, try to double check and talk in front of the dish before deciphering who it was for! Because it was long table style there was no way any of us from the end of the table were going to shout out that that was our dish. It was such a let down, because by the time I received my pasta (I was seated right inside, so I got my dish last), the pasta had cooled a bit and the pasta while al dente, tasted too cold for my liking (the sauce was cold too!). I ordered the much talked about Laksa Pesto with prawns...

I wasn't wowed by the dish as many reviews had written about. Maybe all the reviews had placed my expectations at such a high level, or maybe it's just me. I didn't fancy the combination of the laksa leave and the pesto sauce. Somehow, something else was missing to marry the flavours together. There were 2 distinct flavours, one from the pesto and the other from the laksa leaves, which were not complementary to each other. Maybe I haven't yet learnt to appreciate the flavours. So, the pasta was quite a let down from me especially after all that hype. But, to give a fair verdict, I hope to try this place again, and this time, I will try the crabmeat with chilli and tomato one. I had a fantastic experience with crabmeat and tomato the last time at Turquoise Room, so that'll be the standard they'll have to match up to. A friend who's tried this dish at Wild rocket said it's really very good. My colleague who had the soft shell crab also said that it was good. That I'll try the next time too.

I had the Tiramisu with Kueh Buloh for dessert, which was nothing spectacular. It was supposed to come with espresso ice cream, which i have no idea where it was. It was just plain old tiramisu, nothing spectacular. I tried a bit of the chocolate lava cake too and the coconut ice cream with gula melaka. The Chocolate lava from the cake was too sweet (considering that this was paired with vanilla ice cream with is sweet in itself, they should have toned down the sweetness to a more bittersweet kinda lava) and the gula melaka with coconut ice cream made too for a diabetic kill. I didn't get to try the cheesecake, which I heard is a deconstructed cheesecake. That I will save for the next time when I give this place yet another shot to redeem itself. Hopefully the service will be better this time round.

Wild Rocket
10A Upper Wilkie Road
Tel: 6339-9448.
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Saturdays - noon to 3pm (lunch), 6.30pm to 11pm (dinner). Sundays - 11.30am to 4pm. Closed on Mondays.

Huang Jia and more about birthdays

I had to share this on my blog. I headed to Huang Jia (which is the current chinese restaurant that I'm wild about) for my godma's birthday and I made some arrangements to get us to a private room and told them it was for a birthday celebration. They were so nice, the prepared the longevity buns for us, and gosh, we were SO surprised!! Look at the longevity buns man!!! Everyone was just so amused at the presentation and of course we wondering whether that big bun in the center is edible...

Check out the baby longevity buns inside the big bun! How cool is that!!! It was highly amusing. Everyone kept musing at the bun for a long time before the waiter came by and subtly informed us that the big bun could be cut. We all felt so silly, but hey, it was so amusing and was a good surprise (this dish took a while to come, cos it took a while to steam the buns).

As usual, food at Huang Jia was good. The crispy chicken rocked (and I dare say now that it's the best in town. Chef Chan, I hear, has dropped much in his standards and his once famous crispy chicken doesn't much live up to its name, and I hear the food is oily and basically not the least fulfilling). The lobsters however were nothing all that great, but I loved the other dishes that came. They were all good (but definitely not as fantastic as the 1st time I came here. Then again, the 1st time I came here the bill was about $150+ per person, so definitely the food was damn good). And, the mango pudding dessert was yummy yum yum... While the service was a little too slow, but the friendliness of the staff, the great private room ambience and the wonderful food far made up for it. All of this rounded up with the heavenly oreo durian cake from Goodwood Park Hotel (Their durian cake with all its mousse is the best in town!) was just such a good end to a wonderful dinner. We did have a little incident of a chipped spoon. The nerve of such a restaurant to provide diners with chipped spoons, but their service recovery made up for it (we got extra 15% off the bill on top of the discounts that we were getting from the Huang Jia membership card and the managers came in to apologize profusely and we had a complimentary fruit platter). I was satisfied with the service recovery, compared to the pathetic service that I got at One Rochester (they served me a chipped cup, to which I complained and the waiter was so reluctant to change the cup. No apology nothing... I had poured my tea into the cup and he wanted to just change the cup and not change my tea!.. Gosh, that's like 1/2 a pot of tea gone!! Oh well... that's another story).

But Huang Jia, as always is good. They have a sister outlet at Central called Huang Ting which also serves their famous dishes. Haven't been there to try it yet, somehow the feeling of going to Leisure Park (it's in the east, it's got ample parking space, the less crowded leisure park than Central) keeps pulling me back to Huang Jia. I somehow don't feel like travelling down to Central and battle that crazy 5 storey winding drive up to the carpark. So, Huang Jia does it for me now. =)

Huang Jia Restaurant
#01-01 Kallang Leisure Park
5, Stadium Walk
(S) 397693
Tel: 6344 0250

Baker Furniture

I saw this chair at Baker furniture and it immediately reminded me of Princess... Went to their showroom and all the furniture was fantastic. But if I would to choose any for myself I prefer Molteni. I prefer a more clean cut, modern feel.

The sleepy town of Tiong Bahru

Tiong Bahru is one of the little gems in Singapore which I hold especially close to my heart. You see, my maternal grandmother used to stay here and I used to come here every saturday. However, this part of Tiong Bahru (Eng Hoon street) was one place I hardly ventured to. Besides the seafood restaurant, there really was nothing much here. But it is here in this sleepy part of Tiong Bahru (away from the wildly popular Tiong Bahru market) that 2 new cafe/restaurants have sprout out.

Tbone Steakhouse and Caffe Pralet have sprouted out on this sleepy street. We tried Tbone Steakhouse on CNY eve lunch and most of us decided to go for the set lunch. The fish and chips were ok (normal, nothing particularly fantastic neither was it that wrong.), the bolognaise which my colleague ordered was a bit to jelat for her liking (probably due to the strong pungence of the cheese used and the beef had that strong beef taste). The chicken cordon bleu was terrible. My colleague who took it said the chicken didn't taste fresh (that's probably cos it's frozen, like all other chicken cordom bleu and she could smell that strong chicken smell) and the chicken was tough. Well, both of them who ordered it didn't come anywhere close to finishing it, that should give you an idea how bad it was. I had the minute steak. Which wasn't too bad, the sauce was unique with an underlying red wine taste, however the piece of beef while it wasn't inedible wasn't the best. But for $16.50, I wasn't expecting a lot. The food here is average, probably your hawker standard and for that standard, u're paying cafe prices which is a little pricey. But, I guess what I liked about this place was the environment. We were sitting by the road, and it suddenly feels like time stood still for a while. Like you were transported back into time with the old nostalgia of Tiong Bahru (especially on that afternoon when we were seated next to the shop selling temple items, yet it was so quiet without many cars).
Anyhow, I came back to this area a month after that, not to patronize Tbone Steakhouse, but to check out Caffe Pralet. I spotted this place when I came to Tbone steakhouse and it looked really cosy and the whole cafe looked great from the outside. Caffe Pralet is in fact run by Creative Culinaire, known for their cooking and bakery classes. Service was a tad slow considering the cafe had a small seating capacity and it wasn't running at full strength (probably 75%). It took a long while for food and drinks to come. But, portions wise, it was very reasonable. The asian food was good (their mee siam had sold out when we came!). The fish and chips which the neighbouring table ordered looked really tempting. Mine was shepherd's pie which was not too bad, although I thought the pie filling (or rather the sauce) was a bit too sweet for my liking. The desserts were good. We ordered 3 cakes, the pralet (their famouse cake which is the chocolate cake with the crispy biscuit thingy), black forrest (I'm not a fan of black forrest, but this version had more mousse than cake and it wasn' too sweet) and a cheese cake. To sum it all, cafe style food at reasonable prices.

A&W in Indonesia

I was in Jakarta sometime in March and we came past A&W and that was the immediate stop for lunch. And like JJ said, eating waffles, drinking root beer float and eating curly fries is like a childhood dream come true. All I needed was just coney dog. And indeed, A&W's root beer float and waffles with ice cream is still just as good. Ahhh...

My blog's alive!!!

Ah... This blog is alive. So, here are some super backdated posts and photos...

Changi Airport Terminal 3 which I first visited on Day4 of CNY...

1) Starting from the basement... There is another Popeyes at the airport! Whee... in my opinion, Popeyes' chicken is much better than KFC. So, it's really a pity to see that they only had one outlet at T1 before this outlet opened. And Popeyes' has another outlet at the Singapore Flyer. Yippee!! Hopefully they open a few more outlets in due course. =)
2) The food court at the basement
3) Check out the propeller which was a great source of amusement to many kids.
4) And the other T3 attractions: the natural lite ceiling panels, the indoor garden.
5) Came across this little store which sells local products, condiments and sauces.
6) The shop had miniature versions of soya sauce and kaya. It really looked very cute
7) As I was walking at the tree top shopping area, guess what I came across? DBS Asia treasures outlet! Obviously I had to take a photo. If you're an Asia Treasures customer, you can get limo rides from the airport and use the exclusive lounge.
8 & 9) I came across this game shop at the airport and they were selling games like this... It tickled me so much I had to take a photo of it!

Shokudo

Since my first trip there (I think somewhere late Feb), I've gotten hooked on Shokudo and have made at least 3 trips ever since. This is the Japanese version of Marche. Everytime I come here I spend a long time deciding what to eat cos the choices are aplenty, and the food is reasonable and good (much better that Sakae in my opinion). A bowl of Ramen costs about $8, which really is very reasonable. They have a section which does the normal sushi, sashimi, japanese salads; another with western japanese food, jap curries, teppanyaki and grills, ramens etc etc. There's just so much to choose from and you can just go crazy. Only problem is that they have a small variety of desserts, but they do some of it well. The tofu cheesecake was good and the mango slush was absolutely refreshing and much needed for a mango fix, they also have some unique Japanese ice cream (eg. green tea, white sesame etc.). But the crepes and waffles didn;t wow me. That aside, go for the food and if you want something more exciting for desserts, head on somewhere else (like Menotti, Canele or even Ben & Jerry's).

Some random shots at Raffles place...

I was walking to the MRT station from the gym when I came across these windmills. It looked so beautiful especially that evening. After a good workout and nice warm bath, the light breeze blowing on your face, the ipod playing to a nice, light jazz easy listening music and the windmills just blowing in the wind. Ahhh... That was so relaxing after a hard day's work... The simple pleasures of life.