Food Blog : Pho Hoa

Suntec City, one of the bigger shopping malls in Singapore which also has convention halls, has had many occupants come and go. I guess it's with all shopping malls all over the world, if you don't have something unique, you're more than likely to close shop.

While waiting for the hubs to finish work and have dinner with me, I wandered around the third floor of the mid section of the mall. It's hardly a place I frequent and somewhere I guess a lot of people don't either as it's usually parents and little kids who will wander up there. Toys 'R' Us, kid clothes, kiddy ergonomic chairs are among the shops located there. So it was to my surprise that I found a few little restaurants setting up shop.

We finally ventured into the Vietnamese restaurant and I can predict that it's not going to survive for long. The hubs tried the soupy noodles with everything (tripe, tendon, beef balls, sliced beef) but couldn't find any tendon and not a lot of tripe. The soup was common tasting, nothing special about it. I had the vermicelli with spring roll and grilled beef. The sauce was too sour, the beef tasted like satay and the spring rolls tasted Chinese. As our entree we tried their cold roll. I can probably wrap better than what we had. Not only was it not tightly wrapped it was opened at both ends. Not a place I would recommend if you wanted to get authentic Vietnamese food.

Rice Vermicelli with Grilled Beef and Spring Roll

Food Blog : Marche

Marche has been around in Singapore for as long as I've been here. The original was a franchise and they made really, really good food. Then the franchise didn't get renewed and the original owners took the name back. So these people opened another restaurant with the same concept and the same cooks under a different name. After a little while they closed too and left. Could've been the possible lawsuit that the original owners started.

The Marche concept is something akin to buying various food in a market. They hand you a charge card. Every time you want to purchase a dish, you put the charge on the card, payment is made at the end of your meal. My all time favourite is the Mushroom Soup, the Rosti and their Caesar salad.

Now that the original owners have decided to set up store here in Singapore, the dishes are almost the same as before. But I have to admit that when we first dined there, we wrote a really long complaint. They were just setting up and everything that reflected a first time restaurant owner showed, the lack of trained service staff and the bland food. Anyways, they improved and we went back. Their mushroom soup is almost the same as it has always been (read 'old' version) but the Caesar salad and rosti is different. They don't fry the rosti till it's crispy anymore and the salad has no distinct taste, too much garlic.

New dishes have been added like the amazingly expensive Rib-eye steak which doesn't come with any decoration or sides. It's just a slab of meat for S$20. And Paella, which doesn't even come close to the same thing in Spain or the way my hubs cooks it. But this hasn't stopped everyone from eating there, sometimes the queue is just amazing!

Hotel Blog : The Langham Place, Hong Kong

I thought I'd write this before things drastically change. I don't think a lot has changed in the past couple of years, right?

I had the opportunity to stay at the Langham Place which is located next to a shopping mall in the district of Mongkok on the main island of Hong Kong a couple of years ago. Purported to be a 5 star hotel, it didn't disappoint.

Plus points:
I managed to find the time to take morning swims before breakfast, a different experience I would recommend everyone to try as the pool was a roof-top one and neighbouring office buildings which are higher than the 50 something floor are able to peer down at me swim. Luckily the buildings are not right next to each other, otherwise no one would get any work done! The pool itself is rectangle in shape, 2.5m deep on one side and what I liked about it was the richly coloured small mosaic with smatterings of gold specks.

The room itself is medium in size, I'm not sure which category we got but there is a big bathtub in the bathroom which has windows that open out to the bedroom and if you're adventurous enough, you could have a bath while looking out into the city lights! All modern ingenuity has been fitted in the room, flat screen telly, including a cordless phone which you can bring up to the Spa and pool area. I didn't have the time to figure out how to use the phone... it was too computerised even for me.

Location, location, location! The suburb of Mongkok is an excellent place to stay when you're a tourist. The hotel is located a couple of minutes walk away from the Mongkok subway station, a minute walk away from the Ladies Market, Sports and the Electronics streets, surrounded by little coffee shops serving all sorts of goodies, it's an eclectic mix of Hong Kong's culture.

Cons:
Only the price... it's not for all and sundry to stay.

Glee!

I've never figured out what the draw of this several Emmy award nominated drama was. I've watched one or two episodes in the beginning and decided that it didn't do it for me. That was months and months ago.

Today, the hubs and I have decided to lock ourselves up at home, stocked the fridge with enough food to carry us over the weekend. And what would we do besides cook and eat? Well, I don't know about him, but I just become a couch potato... the best kind of weekends, I tell you!

Anyways, we have HD telly and one of the channels the telly is parked on today is Star World. Usually over the weekends the telly stations do re-runs and nothing's different about this weekend. Right! Glee... It's about a group of high school students who do not fit in. The only thing they have in common is the ability to dance and sing and they LOVE doing it! So overcoming the stigma and everything, they form a choir and the Glee club was born. The show is almost a musical. Never mind about the storyline, the songs and coordinated group dancing are just amazing! I can now understand the pull factor, if only to watch the show for the performances.

Food Blog : Market Street Nasi Lemak

There are only so many places you can go to when you're looking for a cheap lunch in the Raffles Place area. Today it took me to the Golden Shoe Food Center and I decided to try the ones located on the 2nd floor. I'm usually eating on the 3rd floor. Browsing through the 'alleys', I stopped by the Market Street Nasi Lemak stall. The fragrant rice was calling me...

As with the culture here, you can tell if a particular stall serves yummy food. It's always the one with the long, long queue and this was no different. One guy to take your order and collect the money, one guy to serve up the food, one lady to cook and another guy to prepare the raw food. Cosy little operation.

Probably the cheapest lunch you can find in this area, this Nasi Lemak which comes with a piece of drumstick (thoroughly cooked, no raw red bits) or chicken wing, a piece of deep fried fish (Ikan Kuning), a thin slice of scrambled egg (or sunny side up), some fried anchovies with peanuts and a slice of fried fish paste or otah all for only S$2.50!!! The rice itself was a little green in colour, I'm guessing from the pandan flavouring and nicely coconut-ty. The food was gone too fast for me to take a picture. To top it off, I got a soya bean drink with some grass jelly for S$0.80. A lunch at a total of S$3.30, my cheapest lunch yet!

Market Street Nasi Lemak

Money

Sometimes, finding the right title to blogs is difficult.
I had trouble with this one.
I wanted to write about money.

Money has been known to be the root of all evil.
It's true, it's not just a saying.
Too much money and you'll worry.
Too little money and you'll worry.
No one really stays in-between.
Does anyone really have enough money?

I don't want to be poor, I'm not used to that kind of lifestyle.
Neither do I want to be extremely rich.
Shopping wouldn't be fun anymore if you can afford everything.
So where are you in your money's worth?
Do you have enough?
Does anyone really have enough money?

Food Blog : Angus House

The hubs and I decided to have dinner here tonight. We've walked by so many, many times, had a look at the menu but never walked in. Reasons? I don't know why, it's not like they're overpriced, budget around $60 per person for some decent food, but I'm glad we did venture in tonight.

Located just next to the Takashimaya departmental store, this restaurant serves fusion western meals. Steaks with a Japanese twist. The setting within the restaurant is of a homely feel, dimmed lights, an electric piano playing in the background and appropriately dressed waitresses.

They offer ala carte meals and sets too. The set is pretty attractive as it comes with a starter, a soup, a small salad, the main, dessert and coffee or tea. I ended up ordering the Ribeye and hubs the Tenderloin. Both done medium and this is the verdict: the Tenderloin just melted in your mouth and the Ribeye is full of flavour. I like the fact that the steaks were served on a hot plate and not a sizzling one. We were also served one bun, and it looks like they bake it themselves. It came out warm and had a crispy outside and a soft inside.... delicious bread!

I caught sight of their grill on the way out (they have an open concept kitchen with amazing ventilation) and their grill was one I've never seen before. The plates were V in shape!

Ribeye Steak

It only takes a spark...

... to get a fire going...

Pass it on. I remember singing it in church. Such a positive song with a catchy mellow tune. I even remember harmonising and that made me all warm and fuzzy inside. Singing the song just made you happy. But I attended a fire safety talk today and nothing about sparks and fire made me warm and fuzzy.

The fire safety talk was conducted by someone who used to be a fireman, so he knows about fire, what causes it and how to put it off. So what did I learn?

1. Fire is alive when three elements are present: Fuel, Oxygen and Heat. Take away one and your fire is out.
2. Smoke always travels upwards.
3. Most people die from smoke inhalation before they get burned to death.
4. Heat from the smoke can melt contact lenses, glasses and HAIR!
5. Install a few smoke alarms in your house if you don't already have.
6. Keep a fire extinguisher in your house. Ultimately, 2 would be good, one in the general living area and another in the master bedroom. To use effectively, point at the source, usually at the base of the fire.
7. Pouring water on a fire is not always the solution, especially if you're trying to put out a fire of an electrical source.
8. Skin grafts are DNA dependent, sometimes your family members don't match and there are people who are on standby for skin donations.
9. What's the number to call a fire brigade? Reaction time is 8 minutes in Singapore, that's LONG! Everything goes up in smoke in less than 50 seconds.
10. I don't want to be a burn victim.

Blogging on the go

I had a brilliant topic for the blog today, while travelling on the train to work, but the topic eludes me now. And it was a really good topic too! What more, I'm still not used to the fact that my mobile has merged with the iPod touch and if I choose to, I could make a note about what I was supposed to blog about. Maybe tomorrow...

Anyways, the reason I didn't take my mobile out to play with was because I didn't want to be another person paying 80% of my attention to the little screen. There were 8 people within my vicinity playing various games with the iPhone and replying smses and emails. It was all too comical. It's a rare sight to see someone carry a book to read on board the train now.

Junk Food Blog : Sweet Chili & Sour Cream Chips

It's a junk food weekend, this weekend and I haven't had a junk food weekend in eons! Went by Candy Empire the other day and bought some potato chips from Australia and biscuits from Germany. I might do another blog on them biscuits as they were yummy!

Candy Empire purports to import all their confectionery, chocolate, biscuits and chips. And because they're imported, they're really, really expensive. Most of the time that I'm in there, I'm only browsing. But once in a while, they have sales and that's a good time to stock up.

Anyways, I've noticed these particular brand of chips and decided to get them, seeing that they were on sale (at S$5.95 per packet) and the only one left. I even Googled them and was glad that they were manufactured by Smiths. Smiths makes awesome potato chips!

The chips were crunchy, slightly thick and not difficult to munch on. There's a light sprinkling of chili and a hint of sour cream. All in all, a yummy snack. Gotta bring out the jugs of water or I'll be nursing a sore throat tomorrow!

Red Rock Deli's Sweet Chili & Sour Cream potato chips.

Flying Time

Where have the days gone! It's nearly the end of August, which means we've already passed three quarters of the year, which means the end of Winter in Australia, which means it's Springtime next month, which will be in 10 days time... oh, phwoah!

I can't believe how the time has flown... the work week zooms by at an alarming rate, which makes the weekend look enticingly reachable and now it's nearly dinnertime on a Saturday! The next thing you know, we'll be celebrating Chrissy!

One good thing about this is I get to look forward to my holiday. Where I'm going I do not know, I just know that I'm going somewhere... anywhere *big grin*

Uni-Gender

There are only two toilets to choose from.
One male, one female.
The one you're supposed to use is being occupied.
Will you sneak into the other one?
What a dilemma!

If you're male, the answer would most probably be yes.
But if you're female, the answer would most definitely be no.

The office's common toilets are undergoing some renovations which will take a couple of months. They have not left all 150 of us in the lurch. On our floor, we have one toilet of each gender available. We are also allowed to use the toilets located on the floor immediately above or a couple of floors above (access by elevators which take a minute to get to you) or the ones located on the ground floor (which can be used by the general public).

When you're busting for the loo, will you close both eyes and just use the one that's available, even if it's not labeled to match your gender? I wouldn't... the thought of having to use a male toilet which has been used by someone who's not remotely related to me just doesn't sit well with me...

As a result of this, I've noticed that there are more males than females on the floor *grin*

iPhone 4

So I've finally changed my mobile from the Nokia (they've served me really, really well for 16 years) to the iPhone. It came as a surprise to me too, that I actually wanted to change it. I guess I thought I looked clumsy while riding the train, listening to my music and playing Word Warp on the iPod touch and trying to answer a call, sometimes not even hearing the phone. Now I'll have no excuse, right?

iPhone 4

Junk Food Blog : Seaweed Tapioca Chips

I love tapioca chips. Growing up in Malaysia, we used to have that as an alternative to potato chips, mainly because potato chips were so expensive!

I remember at one point in time I was eating sweet chili dipped tapioca chips by the truckloads and only stopped because I developed an allergic reaction to it. During the night, and only during the night, there would be wormy looking rashes on my legs and arms. Freaked me out, them alien looking rashes... It was later deduced that I was allergic to the reaction of the sun against my Coppertone slathered skin (as it was around the time I took up playing tennis full-time), so I went back to eating the sweet chili dipped tapioca chips, but in moderation.

Anyways, while walking around the basement of the OUB Plaza in Raffles Place this evening, I chanced upon this little cart-stall selling all sorts of alternative flavoured tidbits, mostly baked fish crackers and a couple of variations of the tapioca chips. There are even samples for you to try. And it's pretty affordable, S$10 for 3 packets of approx 250gms each. I think they import these yummy stuff from Thailand.

These particular chips are slightly salted and you can't really taste the seaweed, as in, it's not drowning in seaweed flavour, which is what I like. Yummy...

Seaweed Tapioca Chips

Bubbly Ribena

I love Ribena. Who doesn't? What is it about that drink that makes it so easy to drink?

For those of you who've never heard of the drink, it's a blackcurrant flavoured cordial drink produced by GlaxoSmithKline. More of that on Wiki.

Anyways, I've always had it with plain, still water. Never known any different. Until one day, while at an Asian Barbeque, our hosts made a tub of Ribena, as there were kids to consider, and added some carbonated mineral water to the mixture. Suddenly the texture of the drink changed! It became so refreshing to drink! Barbeques in humid weather is often than not needing some form of refreshing drink, besides ice cold beers.

Thanks to her, I now make mine with San Benedetto sparkling mineral water and still water. Bottoms up!

Telly Chefs

Who's your favourite telly chef?
Don't ask me why but I like Bobby Chinn
What they're showing on the telly these days, he's gone to other parts of Asia.
He just did Japan and now he's in Hong Kong.
At least I learnt something... how to cook sweet and sour pork.
It's all in the egg marination with corn flour, and dipped into corn flour again before deep frying.

I also used to like Andrew Zimmern, the dude who eats all things bizarre.
Makes me cringe while watching his show, but I guess that makes it good to watch.
You know what not to eat!

One of my least favourite... actually one I never watch is the no reservations dude.
Can't remember his name.

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown has a new book out "The Lost Symbol". It's probably not new-new, but I just read it, in two days. Long-winded and I think his writing has evolved. I remember loving "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" but this one was longgggg (read draggy). Maybe I wasn't in the mood to read the genre.

The book is set entirely in Washington DC, spans about 8 hours, plays a lot with what perceptions can do, nothing is impossible, Freemasons and Christianity. I have to admit that I skimmed through a lot of the explanations, but I got the gist of it. The only exciting thing was the twist near the end. And then it got boring again.

So what is the lost symbol? That's not the twist but the way it was revealed made it really anti-climatic. You're going to have to read the book to find out what it is, or wait for the movie. I hear Tom Hanks is coming back to play Robert Langdon in 2012.

Food Blog : Fish Sausages

I know, it doesn't sound right, does it? But it's oh-so delicious!

Also known as Keropok Lekor, these fried fish sausages can be found yummiest in Malaysia. I've tried them in Singapore and it's just not the same. Hailing from Trengganu and made with fish meat and sago flour, they really look like sausages, cylindrical in shape. Putting them through the huge kuali filled with oil, they come out crispy with a slightly chewy filling.

Every time the hubs and I go back to visit his parents, we'll swing by the make shift stall by the road side about 5 minutes from their place. The stall only opens in the afternoons and many people stop by to buy some fried bananas, tapioca, sweet potato, yam and I've even seen them provide fried popiah and nasi lemak. But I beeline for the Lekors and fried bananas.

Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th has always been a be-wary day.
Hollywood even made a horror flick out of it.
Wiki tells me that there's a term for being afraid of Friday the 13th, it's called friggatriskaidekaphobia.
There's a mouthful and apparently not in the dictionary!

This year, Friday the 13th only happens once, some years it's three times!
So did anything bad happen today?
*think think think*

In all honesty, today was a brilliant day!
I had an easy day at work, no stress.
I even saw the Youth Olympics Games torch relay which ran by the central business district.
Dinner was at Popeye's, the yummiest fried chicken this side of the world.
Maybe Friday the 13th is a good day for me.

Korean dramas

I'm currently following 3 dramas. Since the hubs changed the setup box to the recordable one for our cable telly, I've been able to record the shows, by series, and watch it at my own sweet time.

So, at the moment I'm watching
1. Happiness in the Wind
2. Bread, Love and Dreams
3. I am Sam

I think the fact that there are so many actors and actresses in Korea, that they don't have to recycle them that often, is the pull factor. I've kind of given up on Hong Kong dramas as they keep recycling the cast. It's also interesting that the actors are pretty good-looking. Somehow they look a bit mixed, like a 80% Asian and 20% something else because regular Korean people don't look like them *grin*

Food Blog : Seafood Yee Meen

I miss my Kung Fu Chow Yee Meen (Cantonese fried Yee Meen) from Paramount Garden, Petaling Jaya.

Malaysian food would be one of the few things I miss while living in Singapore and because it's so close to Malaysia, I keep hoping that someone from my 'village' decided to travel down to Singapore and set up a food stall. Because of this, the search for the perfect Kung Fu Chow Yee Meen (KFCYM) has always been at the back of my mind, especially when I walk by a food stall that freshly cooks their dishes.

Sometime last week, I decided to venture into the Golden Shoe Market. It's about the cheapest place you could go to in Raffles Place for food... some shops still have $3 plates/bowls of rice/noodles. As per usual, there are the various stalls with queues, some without. The ones with the queue are usually the ones with one specialty, for example Fish Soup Noodles or Nasi Lemak. I decided to join the queue for this stall which cooks mostly Hor Fun dishes because I saw that they have the correct Yee Meen, which should not be confused with Sang Meen (egg noodles).

The dish came out yummy, for S$3.50, which is pretty good. The sauce was freshly wok fried and not fished out of a pot that's on 'keep warm'. Needs more seafood, but I can't complain for the price.

The humble Seafood Yee Meen
Poh Kee Kitchen, Noodles & Rice
Golden Shoe Market Level 3

Black Tops

Black tops and dandruff don't go together
Black tops and top loading washing machines don't go together
Black tops and dust don't go together

So why do people with dandruff and top loading washing machines that leave dust on clothes wear them?

Because...

Black tops really make you look slimmer
Black tops are easy to match
Black tops look smart

Manicures

It's been a while since I last went for a manicure. Probably close to 7 years... I remember before I got married and a few months after, when I was really into the mani and pedi stuff... also the facials. But these days, because I do housework (without gloves) there doesn't seem to be a good reason to have a paid manicure done as it's going to be ruined as soon as I get home.

Anyways, just to keep myself happy, I do my own manicures which doesn't involve a lot since I only ever paint them. None of them scrubbing and getting rid of cuticles. It just takes too long! No matter how short your nails are, having them painted does make a difference.

And because I do my own, I have a hundred and one colours! Well, I used to, after a few years (like 5) I tend to trash the old colours and buy new ones. But I'm starting to realise that the old colours might not be so bad after all.

OPI Mod Hatter

Discovery HD World

I'm currently watching Discovery HD World on the cable telly and the current episode is all about Italy. Not the usual capital cities or ones that are famous, but of the magnificent cities of Italy. Everything captured in HD makes so much of a difference! I'm sure Bari doesn't look this good on normal telly.

The previous episode was even better. The Pelagie islands. I had to stop myself from gaping and drooling. Extremely crystal clear waters, aerial shots with depths at which you can see, utterly enticing, even for a non-diver like me. What would I be doing if I were born on an island like that? No working in an office, I'm sure *grin*

I wonder if Singapore will look as enticing in a HD documentary.

A piece of World Cup 2010

Although I'm not a big fan of football/soccer (not sure what people call it these days) but I got a piece of this year's World Cup memorabilia.

Adidas Jabulani Mini Ball

Baking

After this mixer dies, I wanna buy a KitchenAid. I haven't been toying with that idea ever since I started baking which is EONS ago! But I'm not getting any younger and in this day and age, you'd want to have every modern ingenuity.

When did I start to bake? Let's see. Home Ec? Before that? When did we start Home Ec classes? At the age of 13? I'm sure I started baking before then.

I have a butter cake recipe which I thought I had down to a T. I could go through the motions of mixing the batter and baking the cake with my original recipe, but I've been playing around with the recipe through the years. Don't ask me why and I've heard the saying "If it's not broke, don't fix it" but my current recipe is really yummy, even by my standards.

The only thing that remains constant is the tablespoon of vanilla essence, 5 eggs and butter, all 250gms of it. The sugar has dropped tremendously, the flour has been tweaked with some coarse semolina and the milk has been increased to make the cake moist.

As I'm writing this, the cake is baking in the oven... yummy smells fill the house *grin*

Missing Friends

On FaceBook, there are people with a thousand friends
And there are people with less than a hundred friends
Whom do you decide to let into your circle of friends?
Do you take your friends list seriously?
I do
I know who disappears from my list after I've added them
Scary, isn't it?

Singaporean Drivers

Something you can't miss when you come to this country and find yourself in a parking complex, for cars. Everyone who learnt how to drive here reverses into a parking lot. Most of the parking lots here are 90 degree lots. Isn't it easier to drive head first? One would think... but no, almost everyone reverse parks here. It's rare that you'll find someone who'll drive head first into a lot, they would most probably be a non-Singaporean.

It's actually pretty sensible when you come to think about it, reversing into a parking lot, coz when you need to exit, it's faster than having to reverse out, right? Well, the only thing that tickles me is how people will reverse into a lot even when coming out means having to make a three/multiple point turn. It must have seemed like a good idea to reverse park when they first found the lot, eh?

Patient Teacher

I spotted an interesting want ad in the classifieds today.

"Piano for leisure by qualified, experienced, patient teacher."

Brought out a giggle and some horrific memories of when I was learning how to play the piano. I had a really impatient teacher for about 4 years. Once a week, I'd dread going to piano class, which lasted 45 minutes because I knew I was going to get shouted at. Week after week after week! Mind you, she was an excellent teacher, unmarried and in her 40s. But she had no patience with me and did most of her shouting while teaching. Maybe I was just a difficult student, plus I wasn't really into the excelling in piano playing thing. But thanks to her, I managed to get merits in all my exams while under her tutelage.

Shabuz for dinner

Easy dinner today.
Shabu-shabu again.
I love the fact that it's such an easy meal to make.
All we have to do is cut the vegies and eat as we cook.
But I think we're not going to have this for a while.
We've been testing our limit on homecooked shabuz for the past month *grin*

Inaugural Youth Olympics

Did you know that Singapore is actually hosting an Olympics?
The inaugural Youth Olympics will be hosted by Singapore in a couple of week's time.
I never knew this country had the capacity to host a world event.
A dedicated lane has been assigned on highways and give way signs have been drawn.
Private vehicles to ferry athletes have been hired and decorated.
University dorm rooms have been turned into the residential village.
Chefs have been hired and nutritious menus created.
The city has been cleaned.
And all this is going to happen a day after National Day!
August is going to be a busy, busy month.