One of my ex-classmates from my NUS German class suddenly had a craving for German food at Werner's Oven and initiated today's lunch. I gathered she asked a number of people, and some were interested, but in the end only 3 of us showed up - the initiator, and two of us who live in the east. Guess Siglap was a bit out of the way for the "westerners". It was a pretty good lunch though, here's what we had:
Fritierter Camembert Käse
The two of us shared this while waiting for our friend to come. It's fried camembert cheese with raspberry sauce. It's a little more salty than I anticipated - I always thought camembert had a very mild taste - but in a delicate, rather subtle way. I suppose as an appetizer, the saltiness does help to, well, appetize.
Bärlauchwurst
For the main course, two of us had what was described on the menu as "coarse pork sausage with wild garlic herb, served with potato salad & sauerkraut". It was the meatiest meal I've had in a while, but that's German food for you (I wonder what vegetarians would order at Werner's). It came with a small bit of mustard on the side, a good thing, since it helped to take off the meatiness. I liked the potato salad too - potato slices in mayonnaise with apple bits and I think some pieces of hard-boiled egg. Servings were huge, it took me ages to finish the whole lot.
Ox-tail Stew
My other friend had the Ox-tail Stew, first item on their All-Time Favourites menu list. I only tried a sliver, but the meat was tender, and the sauce smelled marvellous. I think an entire plate of it can be a bit too much though.
Jägermeister
I was quite full after my sausage-cabbage-potatoes combo, and ordered one of these babies to round up the meal. Had been intrigued all through lunch by its description: "Germany's famous herbal liqueur with 56 different herbs, barks, roots and flowers ... also believed to soothe the tummy after a meal and a good hangover remedy."
Well it was plenty herbal alright, it felt like drinking one of those chinese medicinal ointments that people use to treat sprains. My friend thought it tasted like Woods cough syrup. I downed a whole glass of ice water while finishing the shot. I have to say, the liqueur may not be the best drink I've tasted, but it seems to live up to its promise as a tummy-soother. I thought I was stuffed after my meal, but an hour later, my stomach seemed to be getting empty again.
Final word on the meal - satisfying, would have been better if I'd finished with a dessert.
Went to watch the Superband concert at the Indoor Stadium Saturday night, presumably their 3rd last ever (they have 2 more shows next week in Taipei). After travelling to 40+ cities and performing 40+ shows over the last year, they were like a great soccer team that's played one match too many, and just couldn't muster the energy to deliver the beautiful game that people have come to expect of them. I guess Singaporeans anticipated that. This was the turnout at their concert last July:
and this was the turnout last night:
Granted, the first shot was taken 2 minutes before showtime last year, and the latter about 20 minutes before yesterday's show; regardless, the crowd was noticeably less this time round.
The atmosphere was rather more sedate too. Last July, there was banter, between the bandmates themselves, and with the audience; the song set was great - the crowd whooped at the intro of every other familiar song and sang along with the band; the performers were on a high and there was just this really great energy in the air.
Last night, they had to come up with a new set for their solo performances, some of which were newly written ones, and while there were a few good songs, I think they just weren’t as instantly recognisable and sing-along-able as the ones they played last July. And when it came to the final few songs of the group performance part, the fatigue really showed. 周华健 somewhat expressionlessly strummed the guitar when it wasn’t his turn to sing – a far cry from his usual booming-laughter-and-huge-gestures persona onstage. 张震岳 went one up (or down?) didn’t even sing some parts of several songs, at one point even sitting with his back to the camera, so that for a good part of a song, we stared at the back of his vest and cap on the giant screen above the stage. Well, I’m being nice and putting that down to exhaustion from touring 40-odd venues in a year. Or I could be cynical and call it a snooty, unprofessional lack of showmanship, which it probably was, too. After all, the other two 大哥s (李宗盛 and 罗大佑) sang their hearts out all night and never for a moment seemed out of it the whole time they were performing. I guess it’s true what they say about old ginger.
To be fair, it wasn’t a total let-down. The new songs were mostly good – I particularly liked the one with the 罗大佑 drum performance) – and even though they more or less just recycled their group performance and encore sets, I think the audience still enjoyed those parts the most, there are some things you just can’t get enough of. And it’s only on hearing it the second time that I realised 罗大佑’s 《皇后大道东》 has such interesting lyrics on post-colonial Hong Kong, in addition to having a great catchy tune.
The two oba-sans sitting to my right seemed tickled to no end by 李宗盛’s cartoonish facial expressions while playing the guitar during his solos. Totally absorbed in his guitar and song, his eyes were closed, and mouth was open (showing off the many gaps between his teeth), and he would sometimes stick his tongue out during the more fancy complicated chords. I also learnt that he’s twice-divorced, currently single and had something going on with the wife of chicken-rice seller in one of the cities they toured (couldn’t catch the details about the 鸡饭嫂 they were talking about).
Some guy in the front section screamed very loudly “周华健,我爱你!” right after 周华健 did his first solo piece, to which he replied “谢谢你,那个非常粗暴的声音 […] 你的女朋友不会奇怪吗?”. Even on his off days, he still has his sense of humour intact. And he still puts up a solid show. What can I say? The guy can sing, I thought he really has a really really good voice. Just too bad he wasn’t in top form this time round.
For all the sullenness he projected towards the end of the concert, 张震岳 did play the percussion for the entire show; and I guess it’s a bit much to expect the same rock musician who did songs like 《我要錢》 and 《我爱台妹》 to perform 《明天会更好》 and 《朋友》 with the same passion and vigour.
All night, I was wondering if they were possibly not going to play 《出发了》, the first song they recorded as a band, and one of my favourite songs from their last concert. Of course they did, and saved it for the last during the encore. So I suppose the concert did end on a high note for me.
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.
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.
(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.
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"
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.
Actually, it's us. We're four girls who met ten years ago in school and decided we should have our little corner in cyberspace to blog about whatever we want - food, places, people, etc.
