Probably the adorablest single-eyelid girl toddler I've ever seen.
Sunday 13 December 2009
International Nasi Lemak
Queued for half an hour at the International Nasi Lemak stall in Changi Village food centre today, for 2 packets of nasi lemak which weren't even that good, and whose sambal chili gave me a stomach upset (may be my fault for eating too much). But queuing behind this girl made the wait seem less long.
Probably the adorablest single-eyelid girl toddler I've ever seen.
Probably the adorablest single-eyelid girl toddler I've ever seen.
Tuesday 8 December 2009
Sunday 6 December 2009
Uniqlo Collection from Tokyo, Wednesday 2 December 2009
Been a disappointing week, to say the least. Wanted to go to the FashBash/MAAD bazaar at Red Dot, didn't. Wanted to go to Open House at Wilkie Road, didn't. And after weeks of driving myself mad with anticipation for my first Holga roll, only 19 or the 36 shots could be processed, and more than half of the processed ones were blurry or had two shots in one frame. But I did manage to lug myself to the Uniqlo fashion show Wednesday night. And surprised myself by having a pretty good time. Here's some of what my creaky ol' Olympus mju managed to capture. Loved the food as much as the fashion, maybe more.
Wednesday 23 September 2009
Lunch at Spring 聚春园, 21 Sep 09
(darn photo-uploading function down again, posting text first)
(edit: finally uploading the long-overdue pix 2+ months later)
It took me weeks, ok days, oh ok many lunch hours of research to get us here for lunch today. Eating out with both ma and yipuo meant Chinese, in a way simplifying things, since I just had to search in that narrow field. I didn't want the usual Tung Lok/Crystal Jade-style Cantonese fare, and it was only after madly browsing through at least five or six blogs that I came across something a little off-the-(b)eaten-path that we could all agree on. With an interesting background to boot.
Apparently the boss of Far East Organisation dined at the original 聚春园 in Fuzhou and was so enamoured with the 佛跳墙 (niftily abbreviated BJOTW), amongst other dishes, that he airlifted a bunch of chefs and cooks from China and set up a branch here in Far East Square, the first outside China. Ah, the perks of being the richest man in Singapore.
With input from a fantastically 亲切 (some things you just cannot translate into another language) staff named Sandy, we ordered a five-course two-person DIY set meal. Sandy talked to us like we were her favourite customers who have eaten at the restaurant a gazillion times before (might’ve helped that we were the only customers on the first floor). When asked what to order, she recommended the two-person set, guaranteeing that the portions would be sufficient for the three of us (they were). When asked if there were any items suitable for da-paoing for dinner, she said that the food was best eaten at the restaurant; and when ma brought up da-paoing fried rice, she whispered conspiratorially – after stealing a glance in the direction of the kitchen – that we were better off buying fried rice from the hawker centre. When asked about their $1288 佛跳墙 10-person set, she advised that the $360+ set for six with no shark’s fin was just as good - “鲍鱼半块啦，不过鲍鱼吃这样多作什么?”. Can’t argue with that.
And so it was that we came to have what we had for lunch:
Tofu soup. It wasn’t bad, though rather bland and ordinary tasting. I wasn’t crazy about the pungent garnish they used also, and for an appetizer dish, I was quite full after a bowl of this.
Fried Cod Fish. 家乡鳕鱼，if I remember correctly (forgot to note down the dish names). What’s Fuzhou 家乡food without some 红糟? This one comes with a healthy dose of the red wine without concealing the freshness of the fish. The flesh was white and had no fishy taste whatsoever. The breaded exterior gave it a nice crispiness. My favourite dish of the meal. Which unfortunately made a too-early appearance.
猪颈肉. Kind of tastes like a vegetarian version of char siew. At least, that’s how I’d imagine it to taste like. It’s very tender, but its texture and the sauce combined made me think of how those faux meats in Chinese vegetarian dishes are prepared. Rather unusual taste. 2nd favourite item of the meal. But it all goes downhill from here…
Cabbage in goo. Well they had some fancy lyrical Chinese name that I forget, which is just as well. Whatever the name was, this dish wouldn’t have lived up to it. The cabbage wasn’t cooked as soft as I would have thought it to be, and had suspicious little black flecks on some of the leaves. The gravy was too thick and had the consistency of glue, or some other liquids I would prefer not to think about. It doesn’t get better…
Mee sua. I can’t remember what this was called. But it was off the menu, and actually came specially recommended by Sandy. And this is where I must sidetrack a bit and comment on the wonders of the lethal combination of a pleasant personality and first-rate service. The mee sua wasn’t just not good, it was downright bland, boring, and just about the blah-est mee sua I’ve tasted in my life. The vege was tasteless, the noodle was tasteless, and there were all these bits of garlic that I had to pick off the noodle (OK the last thing is a personal quirk). Coupled with the better-to-be-forgotten cabbage dish, that’s 2 out of 5 dishes that didn’t make the grade; 2.5, if I count the less-than-fabulous tofu appetizer soup. Now 50-60/100 good food would usually make at best a mediocre meal, but thanks to a really good experience being served by someone who’s always there to provide help if necessary, but never feels overbearing, we walked out of the restaurant in a relatively jaunty mood. Well, the nicely done up interior helped a bit, but it was mostly the service, and mostly the service of one person.
Aaand back to the food.
There were a couple more items.
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. But of course. It was their signature item. The dish which, according to a poem, sent the Buddha jumping over the wall from a mere whiff of it. And there we were at the place that had been preparing this since 1876, and had apparently sold 9906 portions in Singapore since May 2006. So we had to get ourselves some of that BJOTW. This came between the pork and the cabbage. We ordered just one portion – for a whopping $78 (before taxes, without shark’s fin) – and shared it among the three of us. It was my first taste of the famous dish in my life, and of abalone (technically 2nd, but 1st time didn’t really count since the meat was too tough and I couldn’t swallow it), which ma and yipuo agreed were first-rate, being soft and tender after 24 hours of brewing. I dunno. I was kinda underwhelmed. The stew was very aromatic, and I was pretty excited when the lid was first lifted, though not nearly enough to be leaping over any walls. But I thought the taste was too intense, and was glad I was only eating a third of a single portion; towards the end, the richness was getting too much for me. And of the ingredients they had in the stew, I didn’t eat cuttlefish and had to fish 2 pieces out for ma.
Well lunch ended on several sweet notes. The yam paste (with sesame seeds) was yummy. It was sweet, but not too sweet, so it never becomes cloying. And very smooth – like warm yam-flavoured ice-cream. Mango sago was decent enough I guess, didn’t really have much of that. The four little pastries were the hit of the lot. There were 2 flavours – sweet yam and erm something savoury, haven’t figured that out yet. But they were going at $2 per set and we da-paoed four sets of those, so will do more research to find out what that other flavour is.
And that wraps up our lunch at Spring. The service and some of the items were memorable enough for us to make a return trip. But next time, no cabbage. And no mee sua.
(edit: finally uploading the long-overdue pix 2+ months later)
It took me weeks, ok days, oh ok many lunch hours of research to get us here for lunch today. Eating out with both ma and yipuo meant Chinese, in a way simplifying things, since I just had to search in that narrow field. I didn't want the usual Tung Lok/Crystal Jade-style Cantonese fare, and it was only after madly browsing through at least five or six blogs that I came across something a little off-the-(b)eaten-path that we could all agree on. With an interesting background to boot.
Apparently the boss of Far East Organisation dined at the original 聚春园 in Fuzhou and was so enamoured with the 佛跳墙 (niftily abbreviated BJOTW), amongst other dishes, that he airlifted a bunch of chefs and cooks from China and set up a branch here in Far East Square, the first outside China. Ah, the perks of being the richest man in Singapore.
With input from a fantastically 亲切 (some things you just cannot translate into another language) staff named Sandy, we ordered a five-course two-person DIY set meal. Sandy talked to us like we were her favourite customers who have eaten at the restaurant a gazillion times before (might’ve helped that we were the only customers on the first floor). When asked what to order, she recommended the two-person set, guaranteeing that the portions would be sufficient for the three of us (they were). When asked if there were any items suitable for da-paoing for dinner, she said that the food was best eaten at the restaurant; and when ma brought up da-paoing fried rice, she whispered conspiratorially – after stealing a glance in the direction of the kitchen – that we were better off buying fried rice from the hawker centre. When asked about their $1288 佛跳墙 10-person set, she advised that the $360+ set for six with no shark’s fin was just as good - “鲍鱼半块啦，不过鲍鱼吃这样多作什么?”. Can’t argue with that.
And so it was that we came to have what we had for lunch:
Tofu soup. It wasn’t bad, though rather bland and ordinary tasting. I wasn’t crazy about the pungent garnish they used also, and for an appetizer dish, I was quite full after a bowl of this.
Fried Cod Fish. 家乡鳕鱼，if I remember correctly (forgot to note down the dish names). What’s Fuzhou 家乡food without some 红糟? This one comes with a healthy dose of the red wine without concealing the freshness of the fish. The flesh was white and had no fishy taste whatsoever. The breaded exterior gave it a nice crispiness. My favourite dish of the meal. Which unfortunately made a too-early appearance.
猪颈肉. Kind of tastes like a vegetarian version of char siew. At least, that’s how I’d imagine it to taste like. It’s very tender, but its texture and the sauce combined made me think of how those faux meats in Chinese vegetarian dishes are prepared. Rather unusual taste. 2nd favourite item of the meal. But it all goes downhill from here…
Cabbage in goo. Well they had some fancy lyrical Chinese name that I forget, which is just as well. Whatever the name was, this dish wouldn’t have lived up to it. The cabbage wasn’t cooked as soft as I would have thought it to be, and had suspicious little black flecks on some of the leaves. The gravy was too thick and had the consistency of glue, or some other liquids I would prefer not to think about. It doesn’t get better…
Mee sua. I can’t remember what this was called. But it was off the menu, and actually came specially recommended by Sandy. And this is where I must sidetrack a bit and comment on the wonders of the lethal combination of a pleasant personality and first-rate service. The mee sua wasn’t just not good, it was downright bland, boring, and just about the blah-est mee sua I’ve tasted in my life. The vege was tasteless, the noodle was tasteless, and there were all these bits of garlic that I had to pick off the noodle (OK the last thing is a personal quirk). Coupled with the better-to-be-forgotten cabbage dish, that’s 2 out of 5 dishes that didn’t make the grade; 2.5, if I count the less-than-fabulous tofu appetizer soup. Now 50-60/100 good food would usually make at best a mediocre meal, but thanks to a really good experience being served by someone who’s always there to provide help if necessary, but never feels overbearing, we walked out of the restaurant in a relatively jaunty mood. Well, the nicely done up interior helped a bit, but it was mostly the service, and mostly the service of one person.
Aaand back to the food.
There were a couple more items.
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. But of course. It was their signature item. The dish which, according to a poem, sent the Buddha jumping over the wall from a mere whiff of it. And there we were at the place that had been preparing this since 1876, and had apparently sold 9906 portions in Singapore since May 2006. So we had to get ourselves some of that BJOTW. This came between the pork and the cabbage. We ordered just one portion – for a whopping $78 (before taxes, without shark’s fin) – and shared it among the three of us. It was my first taste of the famous dish in my life, and of abalone (technically 2nd, but 1st time didn’t really count since the meat was too tough and I couldn’t swallow it), which ma and yipuo agreed were first-rate, being soft and tender after 24 hours of brewing. I dunno. I was kinda underwhelmed. The stew was very aromatic, and I was pretty excited when the lid was first lifted, though not nearly enough to be leaping over any walls. But I thought the taste was too intense, and was glad I was only eating a third of a single portion; towards the end, the richness was getting too much for me. And of the ingredients they had in the stew, I didn’t eat cuttlefish and had to fish 2 pieces out for ma.
Well lunch ended on several sweet notes. The yam paste (with sesame seeds) was yummy. It was sweet, but not too sweet, so it never becomes cloying. And very smooth – like warm yam-flavoured ice-cream. Mango sago was decent enough I guess, didn’t really have much of that. The four little pastries were the hit of the lot. There were 2 flavours – sweet yam and erm something savoury, haven’t figured that out yet. But they were going at $2 per set and we da-paoed four sets of those, so will do more research to find out what that other flavour is.
And that wraps up our lunch at Spring. The service and some of the items were memorable enough for us to make a return trip. But next time, no cabbage. And no mee sua.
Saturday 12 September 2009
魏如萱 - 泡泡音乐会 @ Esplanade, Friday 11 Sep 09
Went to watch the WaWa Bubbles concert at Esplanade last night. I was nursing a pretty bad headache and pissed that it was gonna be a 梦系红楼 all over again, where the concert was great but I was just not enjoying it. I knew next to nothing about the singer, but I got the ticket because I wanted to watch the NyLas concert next month, and they were having a package discount if we bought tickets for both the WaWa and NyLas concerts.
I decided I liked WaWa the minute she appeared on stage. She didn't quite stride confidently across as most major-league stars do (anyway this was the recital studio so no mainstream A-listers here), but rather peeked out from behind the curtain and sort of walked unassumingly to her mike. Second thing she did that made me an instant fan. After singing one or two songs, she declared Photo-taking time (despite the strict Esplanade No Photos policy), and gave us a full minute or so to snap to our hearts' content. These were all my poor ol' cam came up with:
She also said it was OK to turn on our phones, but that she would confiscate it if it rang out loud and asked the caller why he/she wasn't at her concert. So cute.
She kept saying she was 好紧张 and how her legs 一直在发抖 (probably from the cold), but she seemed quite OK to me. Only forgot a few lines in the last song in the encore. I haven't heard most of her songs, and I can't say any left deep impressions on me - but I did like her use of accordion in her music. And her voice does a very interesting thing when she gets dramatic. It's soft and wispy for the most part, but when she goes drama she suddenly sounds like she's drawing sounds up from the depths of her body. Anyhoo. Here's the set she performed:
"the lalalalala song"
泡泡
买你
香格里拉 (encore song)
My favourites were The Scientist (made me a fan of Coldplay all over again) and the French samba song (haven't found out exactly what it is). Really don't remember much what she sang, but can still recall tons of what she said:
Her xylophone is called 秀琴 (to match her perfoming outfits 秀服), and she has a little wooden frog (that she used in the samba song) called 安德路. Later, she borrowed a Sasha bear from the audience to sit with her 安德路 frog.
At Changi Airport immigration, a girl went up to her and asked if she was "WaWa". When she said yes, surprised at being recognised, the girl said to her "拜托, WaWa 你很红好不好."
There's a back story on why she included The Scientist in her set. On a telephone interview on a local radio station, the deejay asked her what song had the biggest influence on her at the moment. She said The Scientist because she'd just heard it that morning. The deejay asked if she were going to perform it in Singapore. Being a telephone interview with not very clear transmission, she said 好啊, 好啊, without really knowing what she was saying yes to. And so she sang it.
She has 很多朋友 in Singapore, not just 一些朋友, because she's part of the CHC (City Harvest Church?) 教会.
One of her favourite Singapore foods is 绿蛋糕, and apparently 榴莲泡浮 too, which one of her fans gave her in-between songs.
She has been to Singapore 4 times.
The giant floral brooch pinned on her was bought in Singapore for $45. She felt 被骗了 because when she asked the audience how much it cost, people were throwing up guesses of $10, $5 and $2.
"我就不相信这里没有喜欢想东西的人，因为听我的歌的人都是想太多的人。" (This one got a big laugh from the audience.)
The bassist in her band is called 汪六 because his name is 汪正一 . And 正一 has six strokes, hence 六.
and so on.
Some stuff I didn't really need to know, like how someone in her band spat on someone else's hand for luck, and someone else kept farting in the backstage room; or how which song was inspired by her tragic experience of unrequited love (she said that a lot, I don't know how many times she's liked someone without being liked back); and she kept pushing her keyboardist to tell us his MSN email.
I think she just really didn't want to end the concert. It was supposed to be a one hour set ending at 8.30pm. At 8.45 she was still singing, and it was past 9 when they finished the encore.
I queued for the post-performance autograph session. Just 'cos there was one. It was quite idiotic since I had barely a clue who she was before yesterday, and I would be lying if I said the music bowled me over (though I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the concert, it was like listening to a friendly - though completely one-sided - conversation). So when it got to my turn, all I could do was stick on a plastic smile, which gave me really tired cheeks after, and keep nodding and saying 谢谢. I think they thought I was kinda weird. This was my autographed copy of the programme:
Her autograph's camouflaged right in the middle of the 泡泡s.
Reached home 10+ with a full-blown headache by then, but guess it was worth it.
I decided I liked WaWa the minute she appeared on stage. She didn't quite stride confidently across as most major-league stars do (anyway this was the recital studio so no mainstream A-listers here), but rather peeked out from behind the curtain and sort of walked unassumingly to her mike. Second thing she did that made me an instant fan. After singing one or two songs, she declared Photo-taking time (despite the strict Esplanade No Photos policy), and gave us a full minute or so to snap to our hearts' content. These were all my poor ol' cam came up with:
She also said it was OK to turn on our phones, but that she would confiscate it if it rang out loud and asked the caller why he/she wasn't at her concert. So cute.
She kept saying she was 好紧张 and how her legs 一直在发抖 (probably from the cold), but she seemed quite OK to me. Only forgot a few lines in the last song in the encore. I haven't heard most of her songs, and I can't say any left deep impressions on me - but I did like her use of accordion in her music. And her voice does a very interesting thing when she gets dramatic. It's soft and wispy for the most part, but when she goes drama she suddenly sounds like she's drawing sounds up from the depths of her body. Anyhoo. Here's the set she performed:
"the lalalalala song"
一起去旅行
拖鞋
"the French samba song"拖鞋
想想
麋鹿 (hm she translated it as "reindeer", but according to baidu, it's "Pere David's Deer")
The Scientist (it took me a while to get this, at first I thought she said "The Silent Tears")我不是科学家
你是不会当树吗
"the Ophelia song" (from some Taiwanese Shakespeare musical play, this was memorable for its one word lyric - "ooooooh....ooooooh....oooooh", with plenty of dramatic angsty wailing)泡泡
买你
香格里拉 (encore song)
My favourites were The Scientist (made me a fan of Coldplay all over again) and the French samba song (haven't found out exactly what it is). Really don't remember much what she sang, but can still recall tons of what she said:
Her xylophone is called 秀琴 (to match her perfoming outfits 秀服), and she has a little wooden frog (that she used in the samba song) called 安德路. Later, she borrowed a Sasha bear from the audience to sit with her 安德路 frog.
At Changi Airport immigration, a girl went up to her and asked if she was "WaWa". When she said yes, surprised at being recognised, the girl said to her "拜托, WaWa 你很红好不好."
There's a back story on why she included The Scientist in her set. On a telephone interview on a local radio station, the deejay asked her what song had the biggest influence on her at the moment. She said The Scientist because she'd just heard it that morning. The deejay asked if she were going to perform it in Singapore. Being a telephone interview with not very clear transmission, she said 好啊, 好啊, without really knowing what she was saying yes to. And so she sang it.
She has 很多朋友 in Singapore, not just 一些朋友, because she's part of the CHC (City Harvest Church?) 教会.
One of her favourite Singapore foods is 绿蛋糕, and apparently 榴莲泡浮 too, which one of her fans gave her in-between songs.
She has been to Singapore 4 times.
The giant floral brooch pinned on her was bought in Singapore for $45. She felt 被骗了 because when she asked the audience how much it cost, people were throwing up guesses of $10, $5 and $2.
"我就不相信这里没有喜欢想东西的人，因为听我的歌的人都是想太多的人。" (This one got a big laugh from the audience.)
The bassist in her band is called 汪六 because his name is 汪正一 . And 正一 has six strokes, hence 六.
and so on.
Some stuff I didn't really need to know, like how someone in her band spat on someone else's hand for luck, and someone else kept farting in the backstage room; or how which song was inspired by her tragic experience of unrequited love (she said that a lot, I don't know how many times she's liked someone without being liked back); and she kept pushing her keyboardist to tell us his MSN email.
I think she just really didn't want to end the concert. It was supposed to be a one hour set ending at 8.30pm. At 8.45 she was still singing, and it was past 9 when they finished the encore.
I queued for the post-performance autograph session. Just 'cos there was one. It was quite idiotic since I had barely a clue who she was before yesterday, and I would be lying if I said the music bowled me over (though I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the concert, it was like listening to a friendly - though completely one-sided - conversation). So when it got to my turn, all I could do was stick on a plastic smile, which gave me really tired cheeks after, and keep nodding and saying 谢谢. I think they thought I was kinda weird. This was my autographed copy of the programme:
Her autograph's camouflaged right in the middle of the 泡泡s.
Reached home 10+ with a full-blown headache by then, but guess it was worth it.
Saturday 8 August 2009
Dinner at Jologs
(Gotta just get this out of the way before I start. Was about to give up posting here for the 2nd time in a month, since not only was the toolbar missing, I couldn't even post in html, let alone upload photos. Googled "blogger no post editor toolbar" and found my answer - press ctrl + F5. Apparently it's some Singnet problem. Don't know who's the genius who figured this solution for Firefox, but here's sending you a big "Thank you"!)
And now, dinner recap. Went last night to a Filipino restaurant called Jologs along East Coast Road. Its website says it stands for "Jojo’s many Silogs [...] acronym of Sinangag (Garlic Fried Rice) and itLog (Sunny-side-Up Fried Egg)" (thought it still begs the question of who Jojo is). We were the only ones there, which was sad for them on a Friday night, but great for us, 'cos they could focus all their attention on preparing our dishes. For my first ever pinoy meal, I had:
Bangsilog: Boneless milkfish marinated in sugarcane vinegar, served with garlic fried rice, sunny-side-up egg, pickled papaya and a very sour broth which tastes like vinegar mixed with some oil and water (not very appetising, but the taste grows on you). It's very simple stuff, and the presentation and combination of food items reminds me of nasi lemak without the coconut and sambal. The fish tasted quite lightly seasoned at some parts, while others were very salty - I guess it all balanced out, especially when eaten with the rice and soup. The egg yolk was the oozing type, and tasted good when mixed with the rice.
Lumpiang Sariwa: Vegetable roll in home-made egg wrapper with garlic/peanut sauce. Popiah, basically. With more thickly sliced vegetable fillings, and the sauce and peanut on the outside. The sauce was a bit more viscous, and sweeter than the popiah I was used to, and of course everyone around the table preferred the usual popiah, but this was not a bad dish.
Brazo de Mercedes: Meringue roll filled with rich creamy custard filling. Oh it was rich and creamy alright. Was quite satiated with the creaminess one-third of the way in. Shared this with my mother and we both left half the filling untouched. Desserts always make me think of how light the Singaporean palate is. We eat things like cheng ting and ice kacang, and other countries have things like Brazo de Mercedes and Rote Grütze (this insanely rich dessert I had in Germany) .
Guinomis: A melodious mix of toasted pinipig, sago, coco milk and gula melaka. This was interesting. Breakfast in a dessert glass. It's like ice kacang with cereal. Pinipig is "immature glutinous rice" that I think they toasted here so it tastes a little like rice crispies. The ingredients are in layers, so even after mixing everything up a little, at first it's an overwhelming ice-cold cereal taste, then when you get to the bottom, you taste the coconut milk and gula melaka flavours. And there are little maroon-coloured sago pearls, so it's a little bit like bubble tea too. Minus the tea, just the bubbles.
The restaurant opens from 9 to 9, so the cooks were just starting on their dinners while we were finishing ours. Wrapped up our meal there with a conversation discussing the recently deceased Corazon Aquino and the general state of things in the Philippines. I sat aside and listened while they talked. And tried to understand. Haven't heard the Filipino accent since our Fac Caps' wacky impressions in JC, and was surprised how some words took a while understanding. "Actually" became "ahk-tuwah-lee", " "mishap" became "mis-hup" (I heard it as "mix-up") and of course, all the "f"s became "p"s.
Good dinner, rounded off with a nice little chat. We walked out telling the restaurant they should be seeing us often in the future. Well I hope so.
Epilogue:
Supper at East Coast Lagoon Food Village.
And now, dinner recap. Went last night to a Filipino restaurant called Jologs along East Coast Road. Its website says it stands for "Jojo’s many Silogs [...] acronym of Sinangag (Garlic Fried Rice) and itLog (Sunny-side-Up Fried Egg)" (thought it still begs the question of who Jojo is). We were the only ones there, which was sad for them on a Friday night, but great for us, 'cos they could focus all their attention on preparing our dishes. For my first ever pinoy meal, I had:
Bangsilog: Boneless milkfish marinated in sugarcane vinegar, served with garlic fried rice, sunny-side-up egg, pickled papaya and a very sour broth which tastes like vinegar mixed with some oil and water (not very appetising, but the taste grows on you). It's very simple stuff, and the presentation and combination of food items reminds me of nasi lemak without the coconut and sambal. The fish tasted quite lightly seasoned at some parts, while others were very salty - I guess it all balanced out, especially when eaten with the rice and soup. The egg yolk was the oozing type, and tasted good when mixed with the rice.
Lumpiang Sariwa: Vegetable roll in home-made egg wrapper with garlic/peanut sauce. Popiah, basically. With more thickly sliced vegetable fillings, and the sauce and peanut on the outside. The sauce was a bit more viscous, and sweeter than the popiah I was used to, and of course everyone around the table preferred the usual popiah, but this was not a bad dish.
Brazo de Mercedes: Meringue roll filled with rich creamy custard filling. Oh it was rich and creamy alright. Was quite satiated with the creaminess one-third of the way in. Shared this with my mother and we both left half the filling untouched. Desserts always make me think of how light the Singaporean palate is. We eat things like cheng ting and ice kacang, and other countries have things like Brazo de Mercedes and Rote Grütze (this insanely rich dessert I had in Germany) .
Guinomis: A melodious mix of toasted pinipig, sago, coco milk and gula melaka. This was interesting. Breakfast in a dessert glass. It's like ice kacang with cereal. Pinipig is "immature glutinous rice" that I think they toasted here so it tastes a little like rice crispies. The ingredients are in layers, so even after mixing everything up a little, at first it's an overwhelming ice-cold cereal taste, then when you get to the bottom, you taste the coconut milk and gula melaka flavours. And there are little maroon-coloured sago pearls, so it's a little bit like bubble tea too. Minus the tea, just the bubbles.The restaurant opens from 9 to 9, so the cooks were just starting on their dinners while we were finishing ours. Wrapped up our meal there with a conversation discussing the recently deceased Corazon Aquino and the general state of things in the Philippines. I sat aside and listened while they talked. And tried to understand. Haven't heard the Filipino accent since our Fac Caps' wacky impressions in JC, and was surprised how some words took a while understanding. "Actually" became "ahk-tuwah-lee", " "mishap" became "mis-hup" (I heard it as "mix-up") and of course, all the "f"s became "p"s.
Good dinner, rounded off with a nice little chat. We walked out telling the restaurant they should be seeing us often in the future. Well I hope so.
Epilogue:
Supper at East Coast Lagoon Food Village.
Tuesday 4 August 2009
Fr3b Sampling Concept
Hi gals,
This caught my eye
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_411945.html
It's an interesting concept. Not new though. Shops like Sasa do sell tester packs. This one's a twist. In the online version, users are allocated points so they can use that to "buy" the samples. That's the free part. However, users have to pay for the delivery. Think just under S$5. It's not much, I guess.
I signed up but I could not find the sample of the product I wanted to try. Which happens to be the humble Loreal's rosy whitening cream.
If you gals are interested to sign up as a member, here's a referral link from me:
http://www.fr3b.com/referral_program.php?referrer_token=6cf6fedcde565f16b729301590440a16
I was wanting to pay $28 for being a member so I can enter the shop (which is at Stamford House #03-05) and check out 8 items per visit. Cool!
This caught my eye
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_411945.html
It's an interesting concept. Not new though. Shops like Sasa do sell tester packs. This one's a twist. In the online version, users are allocated points so they can use that to "buy" the samples. That's the free part. However, users have to pay for the delivery. Think just under S$5. It's not much, I guess.
I signed up but I could not find the sample of the product I wanted to try. Which happens to be the humble Loreal's rosy whitening cream.
If you gals are interested to sign up as a member, here's a referral link from me:
http://www.fr3b.com/referral_program.php?referrer_token=6cf6fedcde565f16b729301590440a16
I was wanting to pay $28 for being a member so I can enter the shop (which is at Stamford House #03-05) and check out 8 items per visit. Cool!
Sunday 12 July 2009
Thought I'd do a round-up post of the fair on its final day.This is the most "on" I've ever been at the Hokkaido Fair, visiting it 5 days out of the 10 days that it's here. There were some hits, some not-so-hits, and some misses. Here goes:
Day 1 (Monday 6 Jul)
Croquettes are pretty common actually, I used to buy one from Mos Burger every Friday night after Jap class, but they had a bunch of flavours (pumpkin, sweet onion, curry, vegetable, etc) here, so I bought a White Curry Cream one. I liked it. It's the sweet and spicey Jap curry type, not the hot Singaporean type. But found it a bit overpriced at $3. I mean, the Mos burger one costs $1.80, and personally I prefer it over the one I bought at the fair.
Now this was definitely one of the hits. It's a sweet potato pie ($3.50). Chocolate sauce drizzled over a pudding, below which is a layer of mashed sweet potato. The whole pie might've been a little overwhelming for me, but I shared it with ma and yipuo, so it was just nice, and all of us liked it. They had other stuff at the same stall, like this box of cute little chocolate sweet potato balls, but my stomach can only hold so many things in one night, and I didn't want to buy stuff back and keep in the fridge.Day 2 (Tues 7 Jul)
Curry bun ($2.80). From the Pullman Bakery stall which won the TV Chef contest. Presumably for this. It's like a donut covered with bread crumbs and stuffed with curry and potato cubes. Yummy. I loved this, regret not having bought another one.
Moisture souffle ($2.80). No, it's really called that. Does it mean that normal souffles are not moisturised? Anyhow. It's a little bundle of extra-soft and extra-light cheese cake. Though I'd give more points to presentation than actual taste.Day 3 (Wed 8 Jul)
Salt caramel croissant ($2.60). From the same Pullman Bakery with the famous TV Chef curry bun. Or maybe the croissant was the reason it won the contest. The taste was savoury and sweet. I never thought salt and caramel would go so well together, but they did. It's a teeeeny little croissant though. Guess some of the best things in life do come in small (and expensive) packages.
Fruit omelette ($4). Apricot, another fruit (I forget which), whipped cream and a generous dollop of custard sandwiched in a piece of flat, round cake. Fruits are usually not my thing, but I really enjoyed this. Again, just really smart combination. The fruits were the stand-out flavour, while the cream and custard played supporting roles, and the cake was soft and light. Perfect.Day 4 (Thurs 9 Jul)
Snow crab ($4.50) and Scallop with pizza sauce ($4.20) paos. I bought the frozen ones, 'cos I didn't think I could eat them after dinner, so they're still sitting in my freezer. Did try the snow crab pao today at the fair, though, they were going at the last-day bargain price of $3 (argh). Sad to say, rather disappointing. It looked like coleslaw filling, but tasted quite bland. I guess they were going for the natural, healthy taste, which ended up ... well, tasteless. Guess that explains the $3 bargain today. Fingers crossed for the scallop one.
Hokodate chocolate cheese cake, box of 4 ($10). This is melt-in-your-mouth chocolate heaven. You hardly taste the cheese at all. Well, not a bad thing, in my book. At $2.50 for a minuscule piece, though, I was practically counting the cents at every bite. Like I'd take a bite and go, "Oh that's 20 cents... OK big bite for 50... oops, that piece fell on the floor, 10 cents into the rubbish bin."
Day 5 (Sun 12 Jul)
Zundo Gyokai Shio ramen ($12). Well this left me with all the wrong memories. The first few spoonfuls were tasty enough (they followed the snow crab pao), but beyond that, the intense saltiness of the fish stock starts to get really cloying. Repeated gulps of mineral water did not much to cleanse the palate. The ramen were the thick yellow type, not my favourite. And the pork slices were too much fat, too little pork. Maybe I should have gone for the pork-based soup ramen.
Sakura mochi and green tea ice cream ($5.50). The whole Hokkaido fair experience ended on a sweet note for me. The ice cream stall was undoubtedly one of the more popular ones at the fair. They had rope barriers for the perpetual queue in front of this stall, and even two security guards controlling the crowd. This was like the not-to-be-missed highlight of the fair. They had only a few flavours - milk, cheese, strawberry yogurt, blueberry, green tea and sakura mochi. I picked green tea 'cos I thought the Japs, of all people, would know how to make decent green tea-flavoured ice cream, and sakura mochi 'cos it looked pretty and sounded exotic. Loved both. The green tea was sweet, but tasted of tea minus the bitterness, and the sakura mochi reminds me of the pink ice cream you get at roadside ice cream stalls, with little chewy mochi bits. Only complaint was that the ice cream didn't really melt into the cone, and when you finish, you get a whole empty cone with nothing to go with.Overall, I'm pleased with my 收获 at the fair this year. Already looking forward to next year's!
Sunday 24 May 2009
Cats
My next-door neighbours have 3 cats and a dog. Apparently one of them, Dum Dum, recently fell from the gatepost and had to go see the doctor. It cost them $76. I don't recall ever having to pay the doctor so much on any of my visits (touch wood). Here's Dum Dum perched on his favourite spot before he fell from it:
Which reminds me of another cat in my neighbourhood. I call it the Cheshire Cat because it made me think of the cat in Alice in Wonderland. I used to see it every morning on my way to work. It would be sitting up on the gatepost too, looking down at us harried school- or office-bound mortals, with the haughtiest expression a cat could have. I used to laugh and thought it was the most amusing thing. Now I don't see the cat so often anymore. Here it is looking sulky (or maybe suspiciously at me) on a Saturday morning:
Back to my next-door neighbours' cats. Another one is called Mickey. I've only seen Mickey once because apparently she's the princess of the house and rarely, if ever, deems the outside un-air-conditioned world worthy of her presence. And obviously has never come close to crossing the wall over to our place.
Then there's Tiger. Who's always prancing everywhere and living up to his name by biting and scratching people who get too near him when he's in a pissed-off mood.
Here's Crouching Tiger...
Regal-looking Tiger walking to a pail probably to steal a sip or two of mop water...
Thirsty Tiger drinking from another unlikely water receptacle...
Playful Tiger rolling around on the floor...
And Tiger and Dum Dum sharing the shade under the table on a hot Sunday afternoon:
Up until early this year, we had another daily feline visitor. It was called Khushi, lived in the Kew Gates apartments behind us, and was owned by someone named Pratts. Khushi's mortal enemy was Tiger and one of their favourite pastimes was to sit around starring and snarling at each other for extended periods of time until they got bored/hungry and went home for their meals. Then one day we stopped seeing Khushi. Took us a while to realise Pratts had probably re-located taking the Khushi along with him/her. Pity. I thought Khushi was the adorablest of all the cats around:
Hope it'll come back and visit some day.
Which reminds me of another cat in my neighbourhood. I call it the Cheshire Cat because it made me think of the cat in Alice in Wonderland. I used to see it every morning on my way to work. It would be sitting up on the gatepost too, looking down at us harried school- or office-bound mortals, with the haughtiest expression a cat could have. I used to laugh and thought it was the most amusing thing. Now I don't see the cat so often anymore. Here it is looking sulky (or maybe suspiciously at me) on a Saturday morning:
Back to my next-door neighbours' cats. Another one is called Mickey. I've only seen Mickey once because apparently she's the princess of the house and rarely, if ever, deems the outside un-air-conditioned world worthy of her presence. And obviously has never come close to crossing the wall over to our place.Then there's Tiger. Who's always prancing everywhere and living up to his name by biting and scratching people who get too near him when he's in a pissed-off mood.
Here's Crouching Tiger...
Regal-looking Tiger walking to a pail probably to steal a sip or two of mop water...
Thirsty Tiger drinking from another unlikely water receptacle...
Playful Tiger rolling around on the floor...
And Tiger and Dum Dum sharing the shade under the table on a hot Sunday afternoon:
Up until early this year, we had another daily feline visitor. It was called Khushi, lived in the Kew Gates apartments behind us, and was owned by someone named Pratts. Khushi's mortal enemy was Tiger and one of their favourite pastimes was to sit around starring and snarling at each other for extended periods of time until they got bored/hungry and went home for their meals. Then one day we stopped seeing Khushi. Took us a while to realise Pratts had probably re-located taking the Khushi along with him/her. Pity. I thought Khushi was the adorablest of all the cats around:
Hope it'll come back and visit some day.
Thursday 23 April 2009
The water floweth once more...
Yes! The new pipes are in and the water is running again at home!
The family has been living like quasi-refugees for the past, what? 3 weeks now I guess, since ma discovered one fine Friday afternoon that the PUB bill has been off the charts and a leaking pipe had sprouted somewhere. Off went the main tap everyday except mornings and evenings; and out came the pots and pails and whatever receptacle I never even knew we owned to store water through the day.
Until today. Five plumbers came in a flurry of tile-hacking, pipe-fixing, swing-moving (not that the swing had anything to do with the leak situation, but we decided to donate a swing to the kindergarten across the street instead of hacking it into a hundred pieces of scrap metal, and it helps having the plumbing folks to carry it over), and voila! My first shower with decent water pressure in weeks. I'm going to have to remember not to sleepwalk out the house tomorrow morning to turn the tap on under the mango tree.
Anyway. Had 炸酱面, fish bee hoon soup and the queue-worthy Riverside Indo grilled fish with rice from Tampines Mall Kopitiam to celebrate. Well, not really. Everyone was so tired at the end of the day there was no leftover energy to prepare dinner, so I da-paoed food home. Felt like some kind of celebration.
Never appreciated water more in my life. Really, I think this tops any water-saving campaign PUB comes up with. Maybe they should cut the water supply of every household a day each year to remind us how precious it is.
Hm. Or maybe not.
The family has been living like quasi-refugees for the past, what? 3 weeks now I guess, since ma discovered one fine Friday afternoon that the PUB bill has been off the charts and a leaking pipe had sprouted somewhere. Off went the main tap everyday except mornings and evenings; and out came the pots and pails and whatever receptacle I never even knew we owned to store water through the day.
Until today. Five plumbers came in a flurry of tile-hacking, pipe-fixing, swing-moving (not that the swing had anything to do with the leak situation, but we decided to donate a swing to the kindergarten across the street instead of hacking it into a hundred pieces of scrap metal, and it helps having the plumbing folks to carry it over), and voila! My first shower with decent water pressure in weeks. I'm going to have to remember not to sleepwalk out the house tomorrow morning to turn the tap on under the mango tree.
Anyway. Had 炸酱面, fish bee hoon soup and the queue-worthy Riverside Indo grilled fish with rice from Tampines Mall Kopitiam to celebrate. Well, not really. Everyone was so tired at the end of the day there was no leftover energy to prepare dinner, so I da-paoed food home. Felt like some kind of celebration.
Never appreciated water more in my life. Really, I think this tops any water-saving campaign PUB comes up with. Maybe they should cut the water supply of every household a day each year to remind us how precious it is.
Hm. Or maybe not.
Thursday 9 April 2009
Uniqlo - Day 1 in Singapore
Ya, I admit it. Was one of those suckers queuing up outside Uniqlo this evening. That was my 2rd time at the store. The first time, I saw that people were actually queuing just to get in, and instinctively walked away. Decided to have dinner at Mac's first. Came back an hour later. The queue had gotten longer; it snaked around the storefront to the corridor next to it, out the door to the lifts, then out to the stairwell. Nearly walked away again, but then the queue started moving, and I joined it when it ended at the door leading to the lifts.It was ridiculous. I snapped two photos of the queues, and would post them if I could, but they're stuck in my handphone, and I don't know how to transfer them to the computer.
Anyway. Pandemonium inside. There weren't a lot of people. Well not really. Compared to food fare crowds at Expo, I'd say this was nothing, they controlled the human volume pretty well. But whoever were there or had been there certainly knew how to work up a mess. Clothes were strewn everywhere. Labels were blocked. Interminable lines stood in front of the fitting rooms and cashiers. I was so lost I had to ask one of the staff where the ladies t-shirt section was. But when I'd found it, I saw that the battle was lost. All the T-shirts in my size had been snapped up. I spent probably half an hour sifting through the heaps of clothes, but only M, L and XL pieces remained. Those pro shoppers had strategies. They'd grab a bunch of clothes in their basket, take their time to try on everything, then throw out stuff they don't want.
I was ready to give up and leave with the black tunic I'd picked up right at the beginning, until I found out it wasn't a discounted item. Which was probably the whole reason I managed to pick it up in the first place. ARGH. Absolutely refused to go to a grand opening sale and leave with one non-sale thing. So plunged into the mayhem again, and ended up an hour later buying a black linen shirt. Ya, Uniqlo's famous for those. But at least it's $10 cheaper than usual.
Overheard during my 1+ hour in Uniqlo:
Middle-aged fashionista to husband, barely 5 minutes after entering store. "走了啦，我很乱."
Annoyed male shopper A to annoyed male shopper B. "Do you know I walked around the store 10 times?" "Ya, I also walked around the store many times." "Then how come I never see you?" Ah, the perils of shopping in a packed store where there's no handphone signal.
Singaporean employee to Jap store supervisor (I assume). "Do you mean clean it [the clothes] up by folding them?" The Jap employees there must've been aghast at the state of things.
Female shopper A to female shopper B while sifting through "Love for UT" T-shirt pile. "Do you see Give Peace the chance?"
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