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!
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