Halfway there...

Do you realise it's already mid year?
How time flies!

Have you accomplished anything?
I hope you're breezing through life...

What's in store for the remaining half?
Nothing shocking, please...

Should we be mulling over it?
Carpe diem!

Photo Blog : Newspaper pile

Our pile of newspaper is almost as tall as us!

I remember when I was young, there used to be a recycling person who'll come by the house to collect our old newspapers for a couple of dollars. The "karung guni" person we called them. He'd have a special horn and a loudspeaker, the truck moving at 5km/h on the narrow roads of the various housing estate. Vague memories of my growing up years in the 80s in Malaysia.

Presently, I've been noticing a few by-the-roadside-makeshift-stalls appearing in and around the neighbourhood for the purpose of recycling paper, boxes, bottles and cans. We haven't gone to use them, being just too lazy to transport them. So what the hubs does is to tie these newspapers neatly into piles of about 1 foot high and place them near the bin. The cleaner lady has a trolley and I guess she'll be earning a little extra every few months from us.

Newspaper pile

Procecutor Princess

A new Korean drama I've started watching only because there doesn't seem to be anything interesting on at the moment besides the world cup which we haven't subscribed to. I haven't been following the Hong Kong drama productions in a while. Not sure if they're still producing good dramas or not!

Anyways, will see if it is worth watching. 16 episodes long again and hopefully it will be nicely paced and not full of law jargon.

Photo Blog : Moon Eclipse

There was a partial eclipse of the moon last night, but I didn't get to see it as it was hiding behind some buildings and more importantly clouds.

This is what I saw instead, a couple of hours on. Beautiful, ain't it? Surely a manual focusing camera on a tripod would have done better justice to the picture, but I don't have one *grin*

After the eclipse of the moon

Hotel Blog : The Fullerton Hotel, Singapore

I thought I'd start this as a filler on some days where I have nothing much to write about. It would also give me a reason to reminisce.

While flipping a free newspaper on Thursday, I chanced upon an advertisement for this place. At S$288 per night, I thought it was pretty good, considering it's purported to be a 5 star property.

The Fullerton Hotel belongs to a chain of it's own. It's not part of the Hilton chain or the Raffles chain, it's in a chain of its own. The reason I'm using 'chain' is because they'll have another hotel opened next month, The Fullerton Bay Hotel, located a stone's throw away. The building used to be the general post office of Singapore, being a heritage building, a lot of the interior was kept.

Anyways, small as the room was (on the upside the bathroom was larger than the bedroom!), we kind of got upgraded to a river view room and the service and food was impeccable. I ate too much and am currently suffering for it.

It all started with their buffet breakfast this morning. Decent selection of Japanese, local, Chinese and European. I had a little bit of everything except the Japanese and went back for seconds. Probably not a good idea, but at the cost of S$45 per person for breakfast, mentally you'd want to eat more. Their nasi lemak was yummy, sambal was not extremely spicy by my standards, fresh roasted peanuts and crispy fried anchovies. Their duck congee was also pretty yummy with sesame oil, broiled peanuts, fried shallots and pork floss.

After being absolute gluttons (the hubs went back for 4ths and 5ths!) the hubs and I waddled and burped our way towards Boat Quay and got onto the river cruise, something that we've never done as residents of Singapore. The weather was perfect, not muggy or too sunny, and the boat ride took us around the Boat and Clarke Quay area. There was nothing else for us to do after the half hour cruise as we've pretty much done that area of Singapore, so we headed back for a nana nap. Probably not a great idea as I don't think it allowed the food to digest much. Lunch was a simple fare of grilled cod and some mushroom risotto.

Within the S$288, breakfast for two was included, a dining credit of S$88 was included, late check-out, complimentary parking and a half hour river cruise. After calculating everything, the room rate ended up being S$9. That's for a 5 star hotel. I hope they throw in more of these deals *grin* I'd definitely go back.

The Pool

Food Blog : Ju Shin Jung Korean BBQ

*BURRRP* is all I can say.
Plenty of free flowing side dishes and a wide selection of lettuce. The hubs and I even tried soju. With a 20% alcohol content, it's pretty potent. I couldn't down one shot glass even. I now understand why the Koreans are always clearing their throats after downing one shot, it's almost like vodka shots.

Side dishes

Meats wise, we actually found the beef yummier than the belly pork. The Wagyu was the best, as expected, the tenderloin was surprisingly tender, even when the slab of meat was so thick. We didn't enjoy the pork, maybe because the cut was too thick, the skin was a little chewy.

From the bottom of the picture : Wagyu short rib, Tenderloin, pork belly

Pity about the ventilation, you do come out of the restaurant smelling of grilled meat. Maybe that's what happens in Korea too!

Australia's first female prime minister

I haven't followed Australian politics all that closely. Actually I've never been one to follow politics. It's just a subject that I don't have any interest in.

Anyways, from what I gathered, when Kevin Rudd was elected, everyone applauded the selection. So what happened between then and now? In case you have been hiding under a rock, Australia now has her first female prime minister and everyone's applauding the decision. Let's see what she can accomplish before her fate, if it does, ends up like Kevin Rudd's.

Food Blog : Il Lido Cafeteria

Il Lido is an Italian restaurant located on Sentosa Island. I've heard pretty great things about the food served, but have never been to eat there. While walking around Suntec searching for something to have for dinner tonight, I chanced upon a "Cafeteria" version of it. Interesting concept and I think they recently opened as the young waiter taking our order had to find our orders on the menu in order to take it down. He must be really new to the job. Another hiccup was that all our food came at once. There were only three occupied tables, the chef could have waited till we finished our soup and entree before sending the mains out.

Anyways, we ordered the following:
Mushroom soup ~ A little on the watery side, but it came in a generous portion
Calamari Fritti ~ Yummy! Lightly battered and fried al dente
Spaghetti Gamberi Aglio Olio ~ A little on the oily side, but otherwise alright. Prawns were fresh
Spaghetti Vongole ~ Tasty and plenty of fresh clams

Will recommend this place. At the moment there aren't many people patronising the place, maybe it's because it's soccer season?

Time well spent with blue

For the first time since I started working, yesterday went by super quick.
And that's only because I had things to do.
I didn't even have the time to read the newspapers!
I actually hoped everyday would be like that, but I know it's short-lived.
There's something wrong with me to wish for that *grin*
Anyways, for the first time in my working life, I saw the blue screen today!
Gone is my hard drive at the office, irreparable apparently.
Hopefully the new one won't die on me too.

World Cup madness?

Where is it?
I can't feel it.

I don't know what it is, but I can't feel the vibes from this round of World Cup. No one in the office is talking about it, much anyways, all the advertisements or restaurants are quietly running their own promotions and shows.

What more, with some of the games being played at 0230hrs, it's a wonder people are staying awake to watch them!

Lost in Translation

Daiso is a Y100 shop from Japan that sells all sorts of things. Everything in the shop is priced at Y100. Over here it's S$2. They stock plates (ceramic and plastic), cups, stationery, paper, bathroom accessories, sewing, kitchen, gardening, sweets, basically anything and everything! And it's all at S$2 a piece. Some of the things are not worth S$2, as in you could find them for cheaper elsewhere. I guess this is one way for them to make money.

Anyways, most of the products are imports from Japan, so some translation is needed especially for instructions on how to use certain things. And as some translations go, they don't usually make sense.

I was looking for these protectors and in the midst of everything, the hubs found it. The picture below is what appears at the back, look at the last line! I'm not sure what seats have to do with these, but it cracks me up every time I read it!

Food Blog : Suki Ya

Couldn't resist it. The hubs and I stepped into this all-you-can-eat Shabu shabu restaurant in Marina Square last night. Only at the end did we realise that they're the same chain as Sho Teppan, Shabuya and Tajimaya! Looks like we've tried all their restaurants.

Three soup bases to choose from; a clear, a soya sauce flavoured and a spicy, but the pot is only divided by two. We ended up with the clear one for both sides, but would have settled for plain water.

Salad bar was free flow; loads of enoki and they even added a variety of fish balls, as were the meats; chicken, pork and beef. Sadly the pork and beef weren't yummy, even when done al dente, but the chicken was super yummy! Thinly sliced and we ended up having three plates of it. I'm not sure if I would go back, but it's an option for a pretty neatly priced buffet place, even if all the meats weren't of good quality. Mind you, they do charge for food wastage and it's a hefty 20% of your bill.

Food Blog : Chicken Chop

The choices of food at Raffles Place is amazing! I don't think I'll be able to finish trying every single cafe or restaurant if I'm working there for at least the next five years, only because there will be some places you'll visit more than once.

Today, I tried the chicken chop (which is basically a grilled marinated piece of deboned chicken maryland) at a Koufu food court located at one end of the Golden Shoe complex. The dish usually comes with a serve of french fries or mashed potatoes and coleslaw. What I liked about this place was that instead of coleslaw it was sliced green apple with salad dressing and a fourth of sweet corn. The meat itself was nicely marinated and comes with either pepper or mushroom sauce. All in all, yummy!

Food Blog : Ja Jiang Mien

After watching a few Korean dramas, I wanted to try a local dish called Ja Jiang mien. It's basically fried pork and onions in a black bean sauce with rice noodles. With Singapore being a super multicultural city, you would expect to be able to find a restaurant that serves it and today I found one.

There's a tiny restaurant near the office which serves Korean Chinese food and after hearing the owner speak Korean and checking that 80% of the patrons are Korean, one would surmise that the food is pretty authentic. Ja Jiang mien is quite yummy. I liked the noodles which reminded me of the green bean noodles which was served in the vietnamese restaurants in Adelaide.

I will go back again for another fix, can't do it too often as a bowl is S$12 and there's tax to add.

Oh Su Jung vs Karl

Found a new Korean drama to watch, which was aired in 2007. A drama about how a fat dude was jilted at the altar, because he failed at the third stage of his bar exam, goes over to America to become a golf pro and comes back all gorgeous and rich to effect his revenge.

The main male character is really cute, probably the only reason I'm watching it. Oh Ji Ho has amazingly cute dimples when he smiles and his crows feet don't make him look old, but extremely lovable. I hope he never goes under the knife.

Food Blog : Equinox

The hubs made a reservation for dinner here, a pleasant surprise. It was a little last minute for him as he only did it yesterday, but with today being a Tuesday, we managed to get a table by the window (at a surcharge of S$20). Not surprisingly, we weren't the only ones in the restaurant, the area where the bay windows are located were full.

The Equinox is a restaurant located on the 70th floor of the Fairmont Singapore hotel with spectacular and unobstructed views of the central business district and upcoming Marina Bay area. Today's sky was just lovely, a little cloudy, bringing out the gorgeous colours of sunset. The only gripe is because their windows are floor to ceiling (where their ceiling is 3 storeys high), the night skyline was disturbed by the reflection of the interior lights.


As for dinner, a simple menu which I'm sure they change with the season as I don't remember the same selection when we were here last (about 2 years ago). Skipping the degustation menu (as I didn't fancy half the dishes) we ended up with an entree, a main and for me a dessert, accompanied with a glass of white wine.

The crustacean bisque with coconut froth, seafood ravioli and a piece of fresh lobster meat was light, slightly on the watery side, but very flavourful. Portion wise was surprisingly just nice, didn't make me crave for more after... Freshly baked bread kept coming and I think that probably filled me up. Yummy was the mushroom ciabatta.


For my main, I had the Angus beef tenderloins, which were done medium and I only expected a piece and was pleasantly surprised with the serving of a couple! The cylindrical looking piece on top is a piece of fried marrow, which tasted a little strange to me, as in it was like eating fried fat. I didn't know that it was marrow until about halfway through the meal when I remembered the description and quickly passed the rest to the hubs!


Dessert was a plate of Hibiscus sorbet with lime cheese cake separating the sorbet and apple puree. The apple puree was a little on the sour side but the lime cheese cake and sorbet were yummy. Hibiscus done this side of the world is not that bad. Tasted a little like eating the flower, not that I have tried, but if I did, it would be what I imagine a fresh flower tasted like, but I think I still prefer the Okinawa version.


Overall, a very yummy dinner. Would be going back for special occasions, especially when the sky's gorgeous.

Food Blog : Tajimaya

At the rate we're going, this is looking to be a food blog!

We tried the shabu side of this restaurant once, and found a yummy dipping sauce, so I thought we'd give the yakiniku side a try. For those who are uninitiated with the finer side of Japanese terms, yakiniku is for grilled meats, almost the same as the Korean grilled meats. Well, at least it was served on a grill with charcoal underneath. Actually the side vinegared vegetables reminded us of eating in a Korean restaurant.

Anyways, we ordered the wagyu set as there was going to be 4 different cuts of meat plus a serve of kurobuta. The serving was really small, about 3 pieces of each type of meat per person and we had to cook the meat slowly, otherwise the meal would have been over before it even began. The ribeye and sirloin were yummy at medium done-ness. Didn't like the meats which were lightly marinated.

Overall, we probably wouldn't go back there. Unlike the Korean restaurants, there's no one to cook for us! *grin*

Food Blog : Jade at The Fullerton

Expensive food isn't always all that yummy. Some ex-workmates and I decided to try out the above's a la carte buffet teem sum brunch this morning. The surprising factor was that it was only going to cost us at most S$33 per person, which is pretty good, considering you could eat till you drop and The Fullerton is supposedly a 5 star hotel.

Glancing through the write-ups on their website made my mouth water, they must have really good writers. But the tasting of the delicacies didn't do it for us. There were over 30 dishes to try and I think we ended up tasting 25.

One of the dumplings read "Xiao Long Bao with fois gras" but we couldn't taste the fois gras. I guess it was all overcooked when the whole dumpling went into the steamer. It was also a little disappointing as the dumpling skin broke upon lifting and the soup just dripped out. Xiao Long Bao's are known to have a little thicker wrap around the meat such that when the dumpling is steamed, juices from the meat will form a wee bit of soup and you're supposed to place the dumpling onto your chinese spoon, bite into the wrap a little so that the soup flows out, drink it and only then eat the dumpling.

Their "Siew mai with abalone" was also a little disappointing. All of us were staring at the siew mai when it arrived wondering what the brown thing placed on top of the siew mai was. It looked like a 50c coin of a Chinese mushroom. I think it would have been more appetising if they stuck to placing crab/prawn eggs on top.

Their "Prawn wrapped in deep fried bean curd skin" was nothing fantastic, neither was their "Char Siew bao". For dessert, the steamed yam with ginko nuts was done the lazy man way (a tablespoon of yam in the middle of some coconut milk with sago), but their mango sago with longan was not bad.

On the yummy side, their "Prawn dumpling with crystal skin" was good. Water chestnuts within the prawn mixture was still crunchy to the bite. Their double boiled soups and prawns with leeks were good. Can't go wrong with leeks.

I guess I would bring the hubs to try it one day, but there are other places which we could go to when we need to get our teem sum fix!

World Cup 2010

The kick off was last night.
I thought people would be glued to their telly's.
What in the world are they doing out?!
The shopping malls are crowded.
The food centres are crowded.
I guess this year's world cup fever isn't catching on very well.
The cable providers are still making a loss due to the less than expected take up rate of the package.
I wonder how many people will be calling in sick from tomorrow onwards!

Reminiscing

To be able to reminisce is an activity we never thought we would ever have to do when we were young. I guess only 'older' people do that. And the older you get, the more you'll have to reminisce about.

I just came back from a dinner with a couple of friends whom I knew in high school back in Malaysia. We haven't kept in touch with each other since we left school, only because we weren't all that close to begin with and when my family moved over to Australia, I really lost touch with a lot of people... new place, new friends.

Anyways, thanks to facebook and the foresight we all had to actually use it, we have managed to stay in contact again, catching up once in a while and arranging meet-ups like tonight. And whenever we do meet up, it's always to talk about what we did in school (the teachers we used to terrorise... sounds horrible, but we weren't that bad!) and who we used to hang out with (what they're all doing now) and all the crazy things we used to get up to. Oh, to be young again!

Nine to Six

Today marks the one month anniversary of me working again. I have to admit that going back to work this time around is a little different as it wasn't by choice... not entirely anyways. The position wasn't one I applied for but I am glad it found me. The work has been easy so far, learning the new systems hasn't been as difficult as the ones I've used in the past and it doesn't require me to go for a course. Anyone with a little finance background would be able to handle it. Now, if only I can get my hands on a GDS... *grin*

Food Blog : Sho Teppan

We've always walked by this restaurant, located in the shopping mall of Ion Orchard, never even stopping to peer at their menu only because the thought of having to cook our own dinner didn't appeal to us. Now that we're running out of places to eat, we decided to give this restuarant a try and was pleasantly surprised at the yumminess of the food.

Peering into the restaurant, you'll find plenty of seats around a few cooking counters of a normal teppanyaki restaurant except that there's no cook. Everyone has an individual induction plate and the heavy bowl is placed on it. What surprised me more was the fact that they serve shabu-shabu here too.

The hubs ordered the layered pork sukiyaki and I had the wagyu beef teppanyaki. I never knew what sukiyaki was until today. It's where the cooked meat is dipped into raw egg instead of the ponzu sauce. The layered pork came out tender but the soup was a bit too sweet to begin with. The ultimate shabu-shabu is still with plain water from the start!

I have to admit that I don't have an amazingly discerning tongue that I can taste the difference between normal and wagyu beef, but with the seasoning and the way they stopped cooking once the beef was almost done made the dish super yummy. I lapped it all up (except for the spring onions)!

Layered pork

Wagyu Teppanyaki

ps. You can get them to cook the teppanyaki for you, but you'll have to shabu-shabu and sukiyaki yourself.

Photo Blog : Crowdless & Crowded

This is just one of the many, many eating places around Raffles Place.
The crowdless picture was taken after work, around 7pm.
The crowded picture was taken during lunch.
It was raining today, a factor to take in when people don't feel like walking further or don't like getting caught in the rain.

Crowdless

Crowded

There's nothing in the newspapers...

I decided to check on my other blog with the above title and realised that it's also pretty interesting reading back on the news of last year. Maybe I should start that up again!

This time I'll find a better way to taking pictures of the articles, maybe actually cutting them out and scanning them as opposed to simply taking pictures of it. We'll see...

D-Day

At some point in time, everyone must have heard the expression D-day. An ominous day by definition as it had something to do with a start of a war in 1944.

So... what kind of people do you think, who are born on this day in the later years, become?
Are they evil conniving people?
People who think of starting a war?
Timid personalities?

I'm not too sure... I only know of one person born on this day in the early 70s and he's a gentle giant. Maybe D-day was just a one off, unlike April Fool's and the expression is just used in general when you're expecting something ominous to happen.

Recouperating by Shabu-ing

After feeling a little guilty eating yummy rich food for the past week, the hubs and I (more like me...) decided that we should have shabu-shabu (Japanese steamboat), shabuz for short, for dinner this weekend. I love this Japanese version of steamboat. The more authentic ones start with plain water and by the end, the water has absorbed all the nutrients and flavours from the meats and vegetables which was cooked. I find it difficult these days to go back to eating Chinese steamboat *grin*

I'm proud to say that after many attempts, we've managed to perfect our shabuz recipe for 2 (this is only because it didn't quite work out when my brother-in-law came over for dinner a week ago). I figured that if we doubled the ingredients that we should double the water, but it didn't quite work that way. It's back to the drawing board for shabuz meals for more than 2.

Anyways, in order to perfect the shabuz, we had to purchase a new steamboat pot. The current steamboat pot which we have was too big (it's the usual pot on an induction cooker fit to feed 6 to 8 people). And just for the 2 of us, it was a little difficult to make it a shallow cooker, we'd have to keep adding water and end up diluting the soup that has already absorbed the food which we cooked. So the hunt for a smaller pot started and over the past Lunar New Year we found and bought a pot for 2. It's a cute little red pot and I love it! It's basically a bowl on top of a hot plate. Ingenious! For each meal, it takes one litre of water without any need to add more water throughout the meal. The heat setting is adjustable and at the end of the meal, the soup is reasonably thick and infused with the essence of the meats and vegetables and is lapped up by the both of us!

World Cup Fever

The world cup is coming up (I think the matches start on the 11th of June) and everyone's hoping to use it as a marketing tool. I know that the cable provider who's able to bring the games into our homes are trying to make the most of it!

Anyways, the hubs and I were at Fish & Co today for dinner and they've introduced three special dishes which they've named after some players. We tried two of it only. The seafood pasta was alright, not too creamy. The seafood platter for one has been halved from their regular platter for one. I think this portion is just nice for one person as the normal platter fills you to the brim. I wonder if I should mention that to their management.

Food Blog : Viet Express

Never having been to Vietnam, always going back to Australia to get my Vietnamese noodles fix, I was pleasantly surprised to find this hidden gem just a 10 minutes walk from the office.

Located in China Square Central near the central business district of Raffles Place, Viet Express has been bustling during lunch hours. The first time I dined there, I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to find Vietnamese wait staff. It's always good to hire locals who know the dishes.

Today I ordered the same dish as I did the last time (couldn't get enough of it the last time, and I don't think I'll ever get enough of it) the Rice Vermicelli with pork balls and net spring rolls. This dish comes cold and dry, with plenty of vegetables (beansprouts, cucumber, lettuce, carrot and radish), upon which you'll empty a sauce bowl of sweet-ish spicy fish sauce all over it. Mix it all evenly and dig in! Couldn't lick the bowl clean today as I was eating with a couple of friends *grin*

Food Blog : Gurney Drive

We were originally going to try the Popeye's branch located in the Jubilee building in Ang Mo Kio for dinner tonight, but there were no empty seats and there didn't look like enough space for us to share tables. So we moseyed down a little further and found this coffee shop. It's not entirely a restaurant, setting wise, and it didn't have a hawker kind of atmosphere. We later discovered that they have only been opened for a month, which explained their poor customer service or lack of. Not that we were treated badly, they only managed to get us a milo when we ordered a kopi-o-kosong and totally forgot one of our mains, the Kuay Teow.

The best dish was the pork satay. Satay has usually been a muslim kebab, so I can't remember if I've ever tasted pork satay from the Chinese vendors. Needless to say, they were delicious! Especially since they didn't skim on the cube of pork fat! I think we'll order 2 serves the next time we're there. One serve only has 6 sticks. We also tried the stuffed tofu, but it's nothing to rave about. There wasn't enough stuffing and the sauce was the same as the satay sauce.

For our mains, I ordered a fried seafood vermicelli which was pretty yummy, lightly chilied and the prawns were fresh. The hubs ordered the fried kuay teow, which came after we finished everything as the chef forgot the order. It wasn't as yummy as the one we usually buy from near our place as the noodles were a little soggy to the bite and too thin. Kuay Teow noodles have to be at least an inch wide!

If you don't have anything else to eat around the area, go try it. Wouldn't recommend it if you're craving for authentic Penang Kuay Teow. Maybe next time we'll try the assam laksa.

Another gem about this place is that they stock Penang cookies from Ghee Hiang (a famous cookie shop) and I got some Hneoh Pneah *yumz*

Food Blog : Nantsuttei

It has been a while since Parco (a Japanese emporium) was closed down here in Singapore. So when I heard it opened again in Millenia Walk, I wanted to check out their household department in the hopes of finding more Japanese ceramics.

I was a little disappointed in the fact that it's not so much the same emporium as it was before, instead its current concept is "open", where a few different brands have small shop lots within the store.

Anyways, located on the third floor are a number of Japanese restaurants; Italian, ramen with shrimp base soup, japanese steaks and this ramen shop. Usually, whenever there's a queue or a number of people within a restaurant where all other restaurants next to it is empty, you'd gather that the food must be good. All the other restaurants had a couple or no customers and I was glad we ended up having dinner in Nantsuttei.

A ramen shop with what looks like authentic Japanese chefs behind the counter cooking the ramen. There are only 6 choices of ramen and they even have instructions on how to eat ramen. I guess educating foreigners or trying to get them to eat ramen the way it was meant to be eaten such that they'll enjoy the dish to the max, is great!

The soup base (primarily made with pork bones) was YUMMY! The hubs and I actually licked our bowls clean! It didn't make us bloated at the end of the meal even when the soup was thick in flavour. No floating finely diced garlic, always a good thing. The ramen itself was slurpable and still crunchy till the last bite. We also ordered a serve of gyozas, but they weren't all that interesting.

A two :thumbsup: for this place for its yummy ramen and soup and we'll definitely be back!

As an opening special (I think) they were giving out vouchers for a scoop of gelati from a gelati counter (Galta) located within the emporium on the first floor. Needless to say, I'm also glad I queued up to get my free scoop of gelati. Hazelnut in flavour and it wasn't icy, but more milky than normal gelati. Brings back great memories from my gelati eating days in Australia.