Singapore Changi Airport

I'm at the airport (its 1258am), waiting for my 0305 flight to Dubai. We came early to avoid the midnight surcharge.

Well, I've always wanted to comment on our airport. It is indeed one of the best in the world! I'm using the free 24hrs internet service, they have free cable tvs, free shops for window shopping (some 24hrs eg DFS, Timesbookstore,chocolatiers etc) , some 24hrs dining( Macs, Coffee Bean etc), lovely carpeted floors, friendly staff (mostly), 24hrs bars, chances to win a Beetle, transit hotel, pool, gym, shower room, prayer rooms, baby rooms, gardens,open viewing, FAST immigration, (check in can be slow cos of luggage and passengers etc)and lotsa more! I'm proud of our airport.

Since I'm free, lets compare other airports I've been too

Bangkok: rather cheap massages, some shopping, very very few restaurants
San Fran: nice food court thingy, some shopping
Seattle: Coffee!
Penang: 1 ringgit massage chairs


Gotta go~
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Best Things in Life Aint Cheap

Ritz Carlton Millenia, Singapore

SS and I went for Brunch at the Greenhouse at the Ritz. Approx $125 (including +++) per person. Is that expensive? We booked for Afternoon Tea at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai for UAE190.00 which is about $75 Sing, without alcohol. Well, more food stories from across the globe soon.



Service@the Ritz: Ritz always had exemplary service. From the dining staff to the maids in chamber to the recep and the operators and even the security guards. (Am I being paid to advertise? NOOOOO!!!!.... Do i want to get a free room? YESSS!!!!) If they was a FriendsoftheRitz Club(for free) ss and I would be the first few on the list! Well, at the Greenhouse, their service was excellent, from Helen Tan who chatted with us for a while and took photos for us, to the guy who was making pasta and souffles, to Weimin, who was carving the duck and the people behind the wine counter, to Remi who kept topping up our champagne glasses. Yeah,I remember some of their names.



Band Playing: There was this really good instrumental band playing lovely evergreen songs, there was a pianist on the grand, a couple of violinists, and some other i cant recall.

Food: Where shall i start
1) The major counter, from the left
Lobsters, Roast beef, Roast duck (DAMN DAMN GOOD), Foie Gras, Various types of sashimi and japanese condiments, sushi, crayfish, lobsters, prawns, crabs, more sushi, oysters, different types of salads, egg benedict station, pasta station, more lobsters.

2) Cereal and juice counter
the normal stuff, cereals and juices and milk

3)Soup counter
Lobster bisque (very lobsterry) and sharks fin soup( better than some chinese restaurants)

4) the circle
nasi briyani, curry vegetables, butter chicken, gratin potato, sauteed vege, salmon, veal shank, curried cod, udon, pork ribs, chili crab(great stuff but No signboard still the best) and some other stuff.

5) Two dessert counters


Hazelnut mousse (out of this world!!), raspberry and chocolate cake, cheesecake, a couple of cuplike stuff, opera, a couple more mousselike cakes, chocolates

6) souffle counter
Dark choc, white choc souffle with ice cream topping! Ice cream flavours: walnut, chiku (not very good), lime and vanilla.

7) fruits station
longans, strawberry, mangosteen, rockmelon, watermelon, etc etc, wasnt too interested in fruits

8) Cheese station
All sorts of cheese and crackers, mouldy cheese and watever (wasnt very interested either)

9) Wine station
Kir royale, Strawberry champagne, midori, white wine, red wine (fontera, Merlot, 2004;VERY VERY GOOD), port.

10) Pastry station
from croissants to choc puffs to muffins and cinnamon rolls.

11) Free flow of champagne (moet and chandon)and the wines that i mentioned above and coffee and tea.

Isnt that a lovely spread? We sat there eating and drinking and reading papers from 1130 to 3pm and if you pay with citibank, you'll get a dining voucher for $50.
I SHOULD BE PAID TO PROMOTE!

St Francis Xavier
The difference between a short mass and a long mass is the priest. It look a long time for me to figure out the meaning of the homily, which i wondered why i even bothered, cos it was in his last statement. I cant recall what he said but the meaning was (something like) "no matter who you think u are or what other people think of you, you are good, because you are a creation of God" . Or something like that. Today was the last day of the Feast for St Francis Xavier.

The other message was that we are preparing for HIS arrival. We are supposed to be prepared as He can arrive anytime. HE meaning GOD not St Francis. Will we ever be prepared? What can we do to be prepared? GO find out!!!

THe church was lovely, with stained glass at both ends. My first reaction when I saw the church was to take photos ( I dont only take photos of food ok) , but I din lah.


Soul Kitchen (PURVIS Street)
It was about time we met up : YY and Cupcake (KB). Our friendship/relationship took us as far back as Sec sch with YY and jc with KB. We were the windsurfing/bridge/taitee/bungee/bali/FOOD!/sushi with grape/cycling and blading/jogging/mahjong/cookout/diving (only me and kb went together)/stayover/jiemei/drinking/clubbing/dreaming/gossiping/more eating gang.
Kb recommended this place and we went on the 2nd last day it was about to close and I know why it was about to close.
Food: quite good, we tried the minced pork keluak, anchovy pasta and bolognese pasta, grilled chicken, sotong sambal, sambal prawn (damn spicy), mincemeat and crab soup and valhrona choc cake with icecream.

Does that seem like a lot for 3 girls? The portions were SMALL!!!! but the prices were HUGE!!!!!!! one plate of sotong sambal (one squid which you can buy at NTUC for $3 for 2, stuffed with some sambal with 2 squares of fried brinjal was like $12.50!) grilled chicken was like a flattened chicken breast , only a couple of pieces was like around $12 too. SO EX! and....

Service: I know, its SOUL kitchen, but i think saving my SOUL would take a shorter time than feeding my soul at this place! Yes, its prepared fresh (Guess what!!!? some food establishments also prepare food from scratch and it tastes just as good and they dont take THAT LONG!)

Verdict: Food was good, i like the grilled chicken and pasta, YY liked the brinjal. What did cupcake like? JW, tag board me, I cant recall what u liked. 7/10

ITs gonna close, but for the sake of my blog,
Return: NO!!! not even if i have time to wait! i did like the food but its no point waiting. they din have NETS nor VISA!

Wedouli Confectionary
Excellent old fashioned, soft, not much airbubbles in the bread type. The walnut cake and the chiffon cakes are damn good too. Its in Serangoon ave 2. Once, I went really early in the morning, around, 7-8am, their kaya buns were fresh out of the oven , the bread was hot and the kaya inside was warm and ever so yummy.
Panasonic LZ2
The best compact camera with most of the requirements i listed previously. Sold at Alan Photo for a low low price of $440. cool! Alan photo sells stuff for cheap and there are always customers in his shop. I"M NOT GETTING PAID FOR THIS EITHER!!!

Good Food, Bad Cameras, Great Friends

Hey Ho! So many things to tell!

Lets start from Yoshi at Hotel Royal@Queens. Its in a rather dead area behind SMU and Allson Hotel. Went with my long lost brother. Yeah, lost him to the Scottish accent (he was in Newcastle, UK, go figure!) and now he's back. It was great catching up with ya Des! Thanks for dinner! Well, we'll meet again after I come back ya.



Yoshi
50% alacarte buffet and 50% take it yourself buffet. The service there is really good. Attentive, a little too at times and the waiter is good at recommending.
Price: $34+++
Food: 8/10
in terms of quality, its definitely fresh.
the chicken teriyaki was good (8.5/10),
the ebi tempura was oki, not cooked on the spot (7.4/10),
we loved the pork and beef stirfry (7.8/10)
the alaskan handroll was one of the best things I;ve ever tried, it was crispy and good (9/10)
chawanmushi (10/10) its very soft and delicate and flavourful. The way chawanmushis should be. the standard is comparable to the ones i've tried in Tokyo, or even better.
Sorry sashimi lovers (NO pun intended), I din try any raw stuff.
Return: sure, if someone treats
Final words: For someone who doesnt eat sashimi but is ever willing to pay for good jap food, i must say its a little overpriced. But its really worth the try and i think this place is alright.


We came across this place in the center of citylink mall, near Godiva called FLASCHENGEIST. Its this German based liquer thingy.Free sampling. Pretty cool. for tastes they have strawberry schnapps, lemon-lime, mango, chocolate port, cognac walnut (one of the best!)fig and something, vanilla cream, cowboy etc. and you can choose the type of bottle you like from $28 to $40+. Well, its oki. ss bought me the mango and I bought him the lime and i bought the cognac walnut for kicks.

Chocolates
I cant believe I did not mention this long long ago.The land of chocco, Brugges,in Belgium is THE place to go for lots of good quality chocolates and with the most interesting varieties of all time. There was Leonidas, Godiva and Neuhaus (the best! forget Godiva!!!), chocolate box and this chocolate museum. They have as many choco shops as we have NTUCs! And its all good belgium choc. Pressed to a fine 0.2 micrometers or something. Brugges also has H &M ! I love to shop there! and the food, is absolutely yummi. The choc mousse it the BEST in the WORLD! There was this liquer store as well. They had this whole storeful of liquers in huge glass vats. Qw bought a tiramisu liquer and a 1997 ice wine, said to have been served to the Queen of England when she was on a cruise. Brugge is a love quaint city, great to chill out and pig out on Chocs. Belgium Fries? Yumms!

















Cameras
Whats in a camera? What are the basics? What do you need? I wish i could tailor make a camera instead of relying on the usual brands to make me choose one. For a compact, it would be nice to have a
1) 5 megapix
2) 8x optical zoom
3) image stabiliser
4) optical and CCD viewfinder
5) simple manual
6) good autofocus
7) AA batteries
8) Usb
9) Panorama
10) movie with sound (unlimited)
11) macro up to 1cm
12) colour filters
13) SD card
14) lightweight
15) assist lamp

No, at present, they dont have one. sad. the only thing that comes close is the Panasonic LZ2.

Here's a Pic of my collection

Kaya Toast, Now and Then

When I was in Primary School, I used to head down to Chin Mee Chin after mass just before Cathecism class. I used to love the $0.40 luncheon meat wrapped in flaky, buttery pastry. And the chocolate roll!! my my....!! not to forget their lovely real custard cream puffs (not the creamy kind). I loved their old fashioned style kopitaim even till I was in Uni. Their signature dish (?) is the famous Chin Mee Chin kaya, known by many far and wide. They also serve coffee and soft boiled eggs. The best seller would be the rich kaya smothered over charcoal grilled buns, with a thick slice of butter pasted on top.

My perspective has changed. Today, the 21 of Nov 2005.

After the successful franchising of Yakun (dont have to go all the way to China Square), Ss and I have been rather keen patrons of their toast, coffee and service.
In any of their outlets, their eggs are soft boiled to perfection with the yolk encased in a thick cocoon of white. The yolk is never broken and we dont have to crack the eggs ourselves. And best of all, it comes slightly warm. spill some black sauce and throw in some white pepper, you have the perfect , old fashioned soft boiled eggs. The kaya is lovingly smoothed out on a crispy charcoal grilled brown bread with a rectangular, flat cube of butter. The coffee is so aromatic and the rich flavour articulates joyously in your mind, begging you to return quickly for another sip. Yakun. This is one franchise that can never go wrong (unlike franchises of Rotiboy!). Service is short, curt and efficient.

I hate to do this to you CMC but, really......
Kaya: 9/10
Bread:8/10
Softboiled:3/10 (it was half raw!)
Coffee:4/10
Service: Aunty forgot my order! 4.9/10
Return: ...... Not for a sit down breakfast, mabbie a take away kaya tub.
Final Words: I love the ambience, I love the place, and CMC has plenty of nostalgic supporters, so it will not go out of business, at least not in the near future. But if i want a kaya toast, I'll definitely give this place a miss.

Yakun
Kaya:9.5/10
Bread: 10/10
Softboiled:10/10
Coffee:9.5/10
Service:9/10 (efficient. self service counter)
Return: as often as i can.
Final words: "Aunty, Set A, kopi O! Thank you"

Jacks Place
This restaurant has been around for ever since I can remember. The food quality has not changed much, there's still a good standard for around $22 for a steak on a hotplate. The lunch set menu is a draw factor for many. ITs a damn good deal.

My favourite Dishes in mid class places
1) Soft shell Crab curry from Thai Express.
2) St Louis Ribs from Cafe Cartel
3) Zuppa from Pasta Fresca
4) Tuna Mayo sushi from Sakae Sushi
5) PAsta from Tuscany's (not around anymore but its worth a mention)
6) Pasta at Pete's Place

Cant think of much now.

Star Wars
I have a rough recollection of watching those little furry Ewoks running around the forests when I was really young from my old place. At that time i did not know the plot of the story nor did I really care about Luke's attempt to bring balance back into the force. I was simply attracted to those cute little things fighting against the white robots (stormtroupers).

I never understood the plot behind the 6 episode movie nor did i know they were connected in any way. I was never interested in it even when G blabs about it all the time since Sec school (to my best recollection, G wanted to be or thought he was a Jedi){i finally , after about 10 years realised some of his blabber were actually Jedi Mind tricks}.

Anyway, after uni, I started working at this tiny company at Kandahar street ( the haunted shophouse). Two significant movies came out while I was working there. Lord of the Rings (we were all gaga over Legolas) and Episode I. 99.9% of the company were fans of Starwars.It was J's passion and extreme devotion to the quintology that changed my life ... forever. The force made me buy the special edition trilogy and start surfing www.theforce.net. During teh tarik n goreng pisang breaks we would talk about the characters and the plot. I love the show.

But in all honestly, as much as i love the plot and the novel characters and the out of this galaxy names and technology, most of the episodes were boring and lacked direction. If i was not crazy about the plot, I would give it a rating of 4/10. But George L was brilliant. I love the language and the ways of lives he created, a fresh and vivid perspective of war, his ability to think beyond the current and create. He created an entire universe! The Samurai inspired costumes, the war ammonitions, the houses, the environs, light sabers! Robots!

The real Saviour i must say is R2D2, give him a human body and he'll defeat thedarkside anytime! Move over Anni!

Finland 2004

The Arctic Circle. Go look for it on a map. Its way up high, not as high as the north pole though. Go to Finland. Its Lovely!!!!


Santa Claus's (Post) Office.Really, there's a Santa Working in that building. He's sitting around, smiling and getting paid. Anyone can go take a picture with him (for a fee).


Santa's Very own Express Train, to get to kids who decide to behave themselves the minute before Christmas! Pity they return to their normal selves just a second after! Rovianemi is rather up north of Finland. Cold, even in summer.

Olavinlinna Castle in Savolinna, Finland. We went there just to see a castle. I have never been in a castle before. Its lovely and old fashioned. We went for a tour and they showed us the rooms and dining halls and all. What I remember the most was their primitive toilets(not for use) and the marvellous views. Oh yes, and the Russian Bolshoi Ballet were rehearsing there! What a treat!

Travel Photos

THe glacier as taken from the sea. Thats just what you see above the sea, it actually goes way down below the sea as well. I think about 70 feet (or meters)below. The cruise went up close to it. Its damn cool.



A lovely Alaskan Whale. Took it while we were along one of our daytrips from the cruise in Alaska. I took some videos too. They call it a Terminal Dive.

I have been busy!

I wanna say a BIG thank you to KS for helping me set up the Tag board. YEah , you may think it easy, just cut and paste the HTML code right??? NOOOO........ KS can testify to that. He had to use a bit of brainpower to shift and manipulate codes around. Well, it was easy for him. Thanks for the precious time spent!!!!! 3 cheers!

Congrats VP for finding your calling! May your journey together (with God) be a meaningful and enlightening one.

Hey Bro!!!! Where have you been? Sorry I missed ya call. Will see ya soon k!

I have not been blogging for a while cos was prepping my house for warming. Here's wat we did

1) Ordered a world map from Nat Geog, its huge about 76 by 46 inches. IT came about a week later. By UPS. Sucks. They were supposed to arrive at 5pm. Guess what time they turned up??? 8pm!!!!

2) Went to Modern Gallery to frame it up. It was recomended by FIL. Not bad. They even delivered and hung it up for us. Coole.

3) Went to my third (after my work place) home, IKEA. I wish we had the Sweden one here. The headquarters in Sweden is huge! It was about 3-4 times larger than the one we have here and they have all the new stuff. We have only one catalog and they have like 5 or six all featuring different products! I would have brought the catalogues back but we took Ryan Air with a max weight of 20kg. After all OUR shopping, it was hard to keep the weight down. While we were there, we had to try the meat balls. And I'm proud to tell it tastes exactly the same as the ones here!

Anyway, we bought more wine glasses and Christmassy stuff to decorate. We have no tree neither will we be here for Christmas, but it was decorating my gate. HAHA.

4) Vacuumed the house. To be honest, this is my first time vacumming and mopping the entire house. Hee hee..... It takes 2 to keep the house clean mah. BY the way, if you are looking for a vacuum cleaner, I would recommend the Phillips Performer, 2000 watts. The suction power is super! and it has this arrow head thing which lets you clean corners easily. and the Scott Mop Brite thingy. Its so much better than the normal mop. Its light, it can manouver around corners and edges. You just have to remove the microfibre thingy and wash it instead of wringing the old fashioned mop head. And , add a little chlorine bleach to the floor cleaning formulae, it makes your tiles cleaner. With these new products, it make the job cleaning easier. And thats a free ad for you!

5) There are lots more we (I) did but who bothers?

Housewarming was fun. Its the first time I had it on a huge scale. This was mainly for family people and family friends and my tiny house was already packed! Will have one for my friends soon! Mabbie, CNY. NO ang paos though, unless you are below 10 yrs old. Well, the place was full of three kids, in dire need of entertainment, an alcoholic uncle who demanded his wine glass to never be half empty, a super cute cherubic 6 month old with huge eyes. She was the highlight of all the over half century old ladies (except me, I'm not half a century old but was crazy about her nonetheless). Me running around, reminiscent of my waitressing job, pouring drinks (free flow of beer and wine and soft drinks) and trying to entertain as many as i could.

Menu
Pineapple Rice ( me 7.5/10)
Garlic Lemon Butter Chicken (Failed trial 2/10)
Roasted Duck (Kovan, Its really good)
Satay
Devil's Curry (Dad)
Otak (Indonesian)
Greens Compote (Mil)
Fragrant Steamed Prawns (Mil)
Durian Puff (PuteriMas)
Agar agar(Mil's Friend)
Durian Cake (Bukit Timah)

I outsourced most of it was it was tiring to clean up the house and cook at the same time. It was fun nonetheless.

It was great to catch up with ya J. It was been a long time since we went restaurant hunting. J is the one I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs. We knew since we were three. Went out pretty often. The best part I loved was her old bungalow. It was the old colonial type set in the Katong area. ( Do you have a pic of it J?) There were at least, 6-7 cages of dogs, and I dont mean, small chiwawa types, they were huge, german shepard kinds (actually I have no idea what breed they were but they were huge and fecocious). And we would run around the huge lawn (not when the dogs were lose), cycling (according to her mother) and play masak-masak. (I wonder if kids do that these days). I remember the outings to Japanese Garden and the parks. It was so long ago! One of our latest ( early 2000?) was the Sun Cruise (which sank) for the Miss Singapore thingy hosted by the Flying Dutchman from Class 95. We bumped into him quite a bit on the tiny ship. There werent that many slot machines we could go to , nor many places to eat. (Try: Princess Cruises!!!) We resume restauranting next year ok J?

Restaurant Reviews

Nanxiang Steamed Buns ( Bugis)
The menu there was limited. Not much of a dimsum menu nor a good lunch menu.
Xiaolong bao: 9/10 THe skin was smooth and elastic, the stock was light yet flavourful. Its a rather perfect XLB i must say.
Others: The pork rib noodle (2/10) it reminded me of instant noodles. Infact, i would rather eat instant noodles for that price ($8 or so i think). Soup bun ($7-8) It was small, and not worth it. Considering the one at YuYuan in Shanghai was larger and only $2.
Return: No (Go Pudong Restaurant at Balmoral Plaza!!!!!! For half the price!)
Verdict: Overrated. Pricey. oh yes, and the bowls and plates were dusty!

Tian Wai Tian Steamboat (Teochew)
Food: 6.4/10
Return: NO
Comments: If you wanna have lovely steam boat(non buffet), go to the place below. The stock was not as flavourful or rich but the fish was fresh. Makansutra, you have failed me again. 6 chopsticks?

Nan wah Steamboat
Food: 10/10
The soup stock was excellent. Rich, flavourful and just addictive. The boat comes heated with charcoal and the aroma is delightfully pungent. Fish was fresh and so sweet.
Return: Every time Mil has craving and perhaps once in two months?
Where: Junction of Victoria Street and Jln Sultan. Just after Hong Wen Primary, at the foot of a block of flats. Oh so good!!!!!

The hectic week ahead

Wedding at Marina Mandarin(8/11)
One of the largest weddings I've ever been to. Perhaps the largest. 70 over tables with 12 px at each table. MY had the sexiest dress ever. It was halter neck, bikini styled top (cleavage showing), bare backed. Really really sexy. Good golly! Food was good. I liked the steam fish and tea leave duck thing. Her video presentation was alright. ( the ones in trend now where the couple acts out the pre proposal, proposal scenes) The waiters and waitresses did this dance like thing holding the trays of food on the stage before they served us. Quite funny. Bumped into Tingzhi from the hall. They are expecting! So nice. It turned out that he was the mc.

Kintamani@Furama Riverfront (10/11)
Dept dinner for about 40px. Food was good. Choices rather limited, did not have the real essence of Indonesian stuff like tahu telor, chendol. But it was fun. Went around making fun of people.
Food: Mee bakso, beef rendang ( best), nasi kuning, sotong with sambal, mutton, chicken curry, vegetables, keropok, gado gado, mee soto, some kuih. Nothing much. Shd have the alacarte buffet concept. 7.5/10
Return: Yeah
Misc: they have tonnes of bank promotions. DBS card $15, usual price is $24+++. Senior citizens 55 yrs and above 45% discount for 6 people.

Aloha Loyang Chalet (11/11)
Before we went there, HY, TL and LS went out for chng thg at Bedok camp. Its newly renovated and looked really really nice but it still seems small. Had the ji hu eng chai too. Walked around to Cold storage, discovered Ice cream gallery where they have lovely flavours but we were too full to eat. Picked up IV at Pasir Ris then went to Pasir Ris Park. It was fun! They have new toys for adults. There were these spinning discs and all that. Must go again!

Finally headed for the chalet. It was really nice. There was a huge pool with slides and jacuzzis, arcade, the beach was a stone's throw away, basketball/soccer court. The chalet was not bad too. There was a kitchen with fridge, several rooms, all with aircon, TV, bbq pit. Way better than the Changi one. Will go again someday!

We had catered BBQ food and all. But I was into playing Bridge. I was starved of the pleasure of Bridge for ages. so fun! Couple of babies came, spouses and all. It was good bonding mainly with newbies like SK and IV.

Sent IV home then went out to Bedok 85 for supper of bakchor mee and orluak. OK lah. Had a soulful time talking and chatting with L and KS.

Thye Fong@ Food Republic
Hokkien Mee and Char koay Teow. Queue is one of the longest there. But beach road char quay teow still better and hokkien mee at Lor Mydin, Kembangan still better. Yum Yum.

The Weekend of No Hard Work

It was the weekend of fun and spending money!


Sat 5 Nov
Sil brought back Quanqude Duck from Shanghai! Yums. I'll show you a pic I took when i was there in 2004. Then we headed down to check out the Subaru Challenge at Ngee Ann City. We stopped by the photo exhibition which stretched from just outside Borders all the way to Forum. It was a display of photos taken from the aerial view. Simply marvellous. There were many many photos. Some of which I remembered were the Disused Tanks used for battle in the middle east, the Glaciers, volcanoes, the bales of cotton, the coral reefs, the carpets, and many other wonders of the earth. its so beautiful! No matter how much I try to travel the globe, I will still never see all the wonders it has to offer. Well, at least i get out of my tiny tiny island set in the sea. Or as Jonathan Lim (from his book of ghost stories would say, spooky island set in the sea).

There were many people at the Subaru Challenge, all the hopefuls, all the people there to test their limits. HAHA. We wanted to buy ice cream and slurp it in front of them. No la, we didnt. Actually, well, I dont really admire them in a way, I think I pity them more. Cant they do something more constructive to get a car like, the longest time spent taking care of the elderly or the longest time spent helping a sick child..... Or the best, practical idea to improve on the *E* system. *!!* You know, will the increasing number of people getting reprimanded for what they write in their blogs, I will leave certain things to **__** and you can guess. Nothing exciting, just a bunch of 200 over people with one hand stuck to the car. {from what i last heard, as of today, 7/11, only 6 teams were left}

Sun 6 Nov
Ss made me breakfast! Yums. One of the few we had at home since we started our hols. Then we went to Cross street for lunch at the Hock Lam Beef Noodle place.

Hock Lam Beef Noodle
Food: Well, it was good, just like any other food court beef noodle. The beef was good, the soup was good and i esp love the chilli, it had a really good distinct limey citrus kick to the hot spicy chilli.
Rating:6.8/10 ( I would also give many food court beef noodles the same rating)
Return: Not a definite no, but will definitely go for other things when I'm in the vicinity, such as Yakun
Loves: The chilli.
Misc: The beef noodles at the East Coast Lagoon is still the best by far. It had a really good unique sweetness about it.

Then i found it. The thing I thought i had to fly all the way to Japan for. No need to pay for cheap airtickets and expensive hostel accomodations to get the gems of my life. It was all here, right in the tiny tiny island. Re-ment. My miniatures! Its all there! At China Square! Right next to cheap figurines of Darth and Luke, Leia and Han Solo. One of the shops sold my miniatures! *LALALALALALA* Couldnt resist. To think that I spent months thinking I had to return to the Land of the Rising Sun, in heart of Harrajuku, in the tall 6 storey builing called Kid's World to get my hands on those tiny, useless, expensive, pretty little gems. I bought my complete kitchen ($$$$) set and a display rack ($25).

Headed down to Taka to get check out stuff and guess who we bumped into? Princess Leia herself! Talking crap to a bunch of kids ( and their parents). Then i rubbed shoulders with a couple of stormtroopers and saw Darth being led away by a child. Hey, Palpatine was there too, along with his apprentice (you are fired!), and Boba fett. Pity Jabba couldnt make it. Jaja seemed to have returned to his Gunggan city. It was some kinda of promotion, i think, of THE ART OF STAR WARS, $18 for adults at the Science Centre sometime this month.

Best Denki
Service there is good! ( Mabbie cos we are not picky) The prices were similar to Tangs. But the salespeople here were way better. They let us try out and compare and there was some promotion. In someways our service seems to have improved. And since we are on that note, its true that it starts with the service people. The people at Mobil, where i pump petrol has been really friendly and i always leave the place not feeling angry that i just spent $50 topping up my car.

Well, its gonna be a hectic week ahead. We have dinners, chalets, camps, more dinners, grading, work, reports, budgets, reviews. Sighs. basically work work work

Farewell Again and Tai Tee

We had a farewell dinner again last night for our colleagues who were leaving. It was tearful, it was funny, it was meaningful, some who promised to keep their speeches short did not, some who we wanted to hear more from kept it short, there were gifts of wine and flowers, unseen gifts of love and best wishes, obvious expressions of grief, sadness and loss. Its so sad. Life would go on with or without them, only differently. Very differently. I hope not drastically differently.

I was sitting there watching people. Some greenies who stayed back in the canteen to help with the sound systems, I'm sure they felt the quivers. Some colleagues commenting on the wine (there was wine! n beer!), Pinot Noir from New Zealand. It was good wine. smooth and a raisiny finish.

In our midst were some colleagues who are about to retire (but not this year), some secretly planning to resign, some applying for study leave or doing something which would cause them to leave as well, some stuck in a bond -just started, fresh from the institution, halfway through or almost completing, some who are on contract, some who just got promoted, some who have been with us since the building came into existence and many other categories of people which i cannot elaborate much on the net. (that was just a hype). People come people go, they aimed to leave footprints, which they obviously did. So footprints and memories are we left with, many of them. Memories do we treasure, memories hopefully would never fade.

Then there were some who have been working closely with those who were leaving, how they have touched each others' lives in some minute way or another. Some complimenting on the chocolates (I was raving about it!!!!!!), some complaining about the food, mindless chatter, mischevious laughter, servers clearing up dishes, people making small talk.

The food was not good (D'fine Catering). The only good thing was the chocolates from Mezzanine! I must go there!

*JUST A NOTE* There are two kinds of speeches, meaningful ones and unmeaningful ones. and then there are two kinds of speechmakers, One who proclaim they will keep it short and really do and the other kind who proclaim that it will be kept short but it goes on forever boring the whole world to tears. *JUST A NOTE*

Tai tee! Yay! We drove down to the beach for dessert, tai tee and supper. I havent played taitee by the beach for a long time. Sitting there, at the rather newly renovated Lagoon hawker center brought back memories of how we used to chop 2-3 tables after windsurfing for chng tng and roti john at the old place. I miss those days. Hendra, Jimmy, Yiwen, Ber, Deb, Yen, Jiawei. We would talk about food when we were windurfing and talk about windsurfing over food. It was such fun times. We would go there together after school,pay the entrance fee, change, race to get the best board and sails, say hi to Robert ( the in charge there), rig up, place our sail on the best spot on the beach (not too near the rocks, depending on the wind direction) then go for a briefing (*blah blah blah*). Then we were off! At the mercy of the tide and wind, at the mercy of our maximum strength wer competed amongst each other. Who could lean back all the way without getting dunked in. Hendra and Jimmy were really good! And who can forget the times we tried to do stunts? the fancy gybes and speedy tacks. Goodness me. I missed us. Us when we were young, rather silly and carefree (we still are but in a different sense now).

Right, back to taitee with KS, Pres and VP, and supper of one of the most famous wanton mee in Singapore and Satay. Yummmssss.

Disclaimer: I seldom reread my blog and edit misstakkes, who cares? I'm not submitting this to an external examiner for marking, am I?Just so you know.

Travel Blog at last

Here's pictures from my trip to Yuksom, Sikkim in Northern India. We went there for this YEP project in Nov/Dec 2003.

Somehow I can only add like 2 pictures max to my site. It sux.

Holidays and Food

9 days of holidays, sprinkled with work to do, deadlines and meetings, a 4hr briefing, more deadlines in the email and more work to do, not to mention the backlog of work which i swept under the carpet and consultations. Not to forget the projected work yet to come my way. Ignorance/Avoidance is bliss. Haiya, can ignore everything but how to ignore a desperate sms "Ms __ can i see you on__". So life goes on, work goes on, the pleasure of my job goes on.*Y*

Since I cant leave the country, I have been on a food tour. Armed with Makansutra, SS and I went around to agree/disagree with his chopsticks.

Mon 31 Oct
I made Peng Kuih! For the very first time in my life. Watching the triangular pink kuih fall out from its mould was like wow. Peng kuih is a Teochew kuih filled with glutinous rice (some fill it with other stuff). Mil taught me how to make it. Its fun. For the "pi" or skin, she used a mixture of rice flour (mostly) and some plain flour and hot boiling water. A tiny bit of tapioca flour as well. She made the terrifically yummi filling of glutinous rice with fragrant mushrooms, flavoured with shallot oil. Coole.

Tues 1 Nov Happy Festival of Lights!
We decided to head down to Chinatown again for the Loh Mi Fun. But it was sold out! So we tried other things. As usual, I was on the hunt for the best porridge in Chinatown. Chinatown food complex

Joe's Pork Porridge 02-69
Food: Porridge, was similar to Tian Tian, smooth, not creamy and very "drink this and get well soon patient's kind of porridge" not my idea of the best porridge in town.
Rating: 5.8/10
Return: NO

Jiu Ji 02-157
Food: Very similar to the Tiong Bahru Porridge. Creamy and very very smooth. It has this machine in the shop which kinda grinds it smooth. Its damn good porridge. But somehow i feel Hwah Yuen in Tiong Bahru is more fragrant.
Rating: 8/10
Return: YES! the best porridge so far in Chinatown.

You know, very few of the food recommended in the Makansutra book is from food courts.

Wed 2 Nov
Mil and I went to Lor Ah Soo Market. Its only temp, nothing much. Then we went to Kovan Food Centre for breakfast. They have pretty good stuff. Carrot cake not bad but the Serangoon Ave 2 one is still the BEST!

Lunch: I made the bak chor with pickle, fried pomfret with sugar and lemon and chicken soup with coconut, cereal prawn and vegetables. Mil joined us.

Went out the town. Walked from 330pm to 830pm. We had dinner at Food Republic at Wisma the new food court. Its a really neat concept. It had all the old, traditional stuff in the traditional style. It has all the really good food in one place. Thye Fong is famous for the fried Hokkien Mee on banana leaves. The dim sum from Fortune Restaurant was good but ex. They has this thick bread toast thingy. I think it started from the same boss as Breadtalk. Anyway, I love the food court! 3 thumbs up!

So much for food.

Here's some pics of my kitchen