Own Time Own Target

Was at CUT @ MBS by Wolfgang Puck on Friday for a business dinner.

The service was uneven, good hostess, flamboyant local (singlish is fun!) captain/ manager, cool efficient wait staff (who were momentary flabbergasted because I moved 1 seat away at my table and they didnt know whom to serve the cocktail to), ok assistant sommelier who looked a lot like Jonathan Leong aka Singapore Idol runner-up (Are you the Sommelier? I am the ASSISTANT sommerlier.)

There was an incident when my boss sent the soup back as it was not hot enough, it came back very quick and hot. My boss joked that it must have been easy to microwave it, and the wait staff was absolutely offended. "SIR, we do not use microwave in our kitchen!"

LOL.

Any way, it was the food we went for, and I started off with a chilli tequila-based cocktail "Devil in Disguise"

Complimentary bread with butter. Oh-they-were-to-die-for even for a non-carb lover like me.

Shared

• Big Eye Tuna Tartare
• American Wagyu Ribeye 280g (Medium Rare)
• USA Prime Ribeye 395g (Medium Rare)
• Foie Gras
• Wild Field Mushrooms

2 bottle of wines

The other guests had other stuff like oxtail broth, Lobster, Dover sole, various cuts of steak etc.

Total bill $1700.00 for a party of 7


I would do it again for:

• Warm Veal Tongue
• Big Eye Tuna Tartare
• USA Prime Ribeye 395g (Medium Rare)
• Foie Gras and Bone Marrow add to the cuts

but but but must save $$$ first.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

It was our 12th wedding anniversary, and we went to have a meal. We wanted something special and this flyer came along...



Fugu! That puffer fish that is extremely hazardous to health if prepared incorrectly...


I did have some reservations with Honjin 7, since the forums have mostly vilified the food, the service and the price. But my previous visit was fine.

And so off to Honjin 7 we went, though on hind side (on the motivation, not that either of us came to any harm) I hope we didnt have a death wish on celebrating our wedding anniversary...

We had ordered only 1 fugu set to share so that we can try the rest of the stuff and ordered:
- fresh oysters on ponsu sauce
- fish liver
- cod fish sperm
- (some seasonal) fish in 2 ways : sashimi and grill
- hot sake



The sake came first in bottle sitting a hot water bath in a small sake barrel. We selected a sake cup each from a tray and we toasted each other. This dinner is shaping up well.

The appetizers came next. No complains. The oysters were huge :)

Then the first of the fugu set. Fugu sashimi. We asked the manager (lead waitress) if it were safe to eat and if anybody had any "problem" (we werent going to ask if they had any "deaths" now, were we?). She laughed heartily and said Singapore is so safe so dont worry (that didnt answer my question). Turned out the fugu was prepared in Japan and sent to Singapore, so I didnt have to worry about some unqualified chef preparing this in the back kitchen.

It was pretty, translucent pieces laid out like a chrysanthemum though we didnt taste anything special about it. It was almost tasteless. But when dipped into the ponshu sauce, a hint of sweetness and flora. Nice. Guess it will be better if eaten fresh in Japan.

The next was the seasonal fish. Blah. Same for the grill. Thank goodness it was "seasonal" and not on the regular menu...

The piece de resistance was the wagyu sashimi. Not the bluff type served at other places where it was seared at the sides. No fire or heat or any kind has touched this sashmi. Seriously WOW. I will go back just for this alone. $25 for 5 good size pieces (promo price). It was sweet butter melt in the mouth. I cannot believe it is MEAT. No fibre, no stringy bits, almost no chewing required. WOW x 100. I gotta go back before the promo ends, and order the large 8-10 pieces portion. E played true to his loving hubby role and gave me, the gluttony wife, the 5th piece.

Next up, fugu bits, the innards (no liver) and skin. Weird but strangely addictive, could be the poison.
Fugu soup in paper pot. Good.
Fugu porridge. Very Good

To round off, we were given 1 scoop of ice-cream each. He had green tea and I had yuzhu. WOW x 20. Can somebody tell me where to get some? The manageress says they imported theirs directly from Japan.

The service was efficient and homely, even from the pouty waitress. Our tea cups were never empty. Dishes were served quickly and cleared just as quickly, even changed. I dont understand the bad reviews, especially 1 that complained that the toilets were at opposite ends of the building, get with it, the restaurant is sited in a pre-war building. DUH.

Gotta go back soon. And I'm not going to correct the forumers, but now you know.

10% discount if you have are an NUSS member.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

We celebrated E's birthday and since I had a craving for meat, we went to Fabianne's bistro at PP again for dinner.

We ordered
- 1/3 panini bread with presto sauce (free)
- 1 panini bread with presto sauce cos E loves bread and becos our very nice/ friendly/ attentive server, Ana had misinformed us about the size of our mains...
- 1 spicy crab soup, good with chunky pieces of crab meat, but disturbingly like a very milky curry...
- 1 caesar salad
- 1 pan fried foie gras with very nice caramalised pineapple sauce. But portion too small (even after E let me have 2/3 of it :o )
- 1 wagyu tenderlolin which was aged for 60 days. It was nicely charred on the outside, but it was just a tad over done for our medium raw, the meat was pink but juices were not oozing out with every cut, there were no fibres in the meat and lacked the chew that i like. Not enough charred fats too. I should have gone with the striploin. :(
- 1 crackling pork belly. Basically roast pork done Brazilian style. Not crackling enough on the top, and not salty enough at the bottom. Go for the catonese style. The portion was twice what Ana had described to us, and we struggled to finish it.
- 1 guiness stout
- 1 house pour red wine which was very good and went well with the food.

10% off with Citibank credit card.

I'm not sure if I'll come back again, but those were damn good paninis...

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

tis the season to be merry...

but the so-called company dinner was any but

a spate of negative news from bad job management, decisions and the financial crisis had knocked the wind out of us.

The year started looking bright with hopes of 吃鲍鱼 (eating abalone), which degraded to 吃咸鱼 (eating salted fish) towards the end of the year, and it looks like we're all going to 吃草 (eating grass) at the end.

I was doubly groomy for having only partially recovered the share losses which I had sustained.

So anyways, I joined the dinner being tired and dejected and hungry (traffic was hell into Orchard road, I waited for 20min to get into the car park of pacific plaza!), and started drinking red wine to be social. But when we escalated to 女儿红 and a jocky was booked to bring me and my car to the KTV, and who will bring me home after the KTV.

I started enjoying the drinks a little.

It was then to the KTV where more drinking ensued.

LOTS MORE drinking ensued. So much that 20 shots of brandy were laid out on trays for fast and easy drinking.

...................................................

I woke up with a start.

Naked.

With a bath towel covering me, on my sofa at home.

!!!!!!!!!

it was 530am.

I jumped up and thrown on some clothes, and started checking inventories.

- Bag check
- Wallet check
- Home keys check
- Car keys check
- Handphone check
- Clothes in the laundry basket check
- Jacket check
- Boots near shoe cabinet check

hmm... so it seems i got home and showered and fell asleep before getting dressed, thats not toooo bad (especially since i woke up before i was found)

waitaminute, i'm forgetting something. WHERE is my watch and rings?

Not at my dresser, not on the hall table, i'm not wearing them, nothing.

I didnt give them away to some KTV hostess did I? GASP!

PANIC.

OMG, i found them on the sink in the bath room.

PHEW*

ok, too much excitement, the headache is killing me. need to lie down.

.............................................

E woke me up and asked if I puke in the toilet cos it was slightly messy. I told him i cant remember but i must have cos i have nothing left in my gut.

He had to run all the errands with the kids for the day as I slept the whole Saturday away. He's not a happy camper but he didnt complain. gosh* I love this man.

.............................................

It was only nearing the end of the night when i was 80% recovered that i wondered.

"Did i mess up my car?"

but i was still too weak to go check, besides there isnt a good excuse for me to go out so late in the evening to my car...

oh good grief.

.............................................

It was only Sunday night that i managed to check on my car.

Did i stink up my car by having messed it up and letting it fester for TWO WHOLE DAYS?

oh no please...

Turn out I didnt.

Thank goodness.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Been eating like a bird, subsisting on about 1.5 meals a day.

It started off with being too busy and forgetting to eat until the pains come.

Then I developed some stomach troubles which left me with not much appetite.

And now I've simply stop feeling that hungry much.

Kinda weird, since I've always prided myself as one who live to eat rather than eat to live, usually planning ahead to next meal's menu while I still eating the current meal.

So things are Not good.

Okaaaay, the possible weight loss in the future may be sorta nice, but I've never been one to obsess about it anyways since I'm ok with +/- 5% or 10% most days. (the qualifying notes re possible and future is because I haven't actually weigh myself recently to check if there's been any change...)

Gonna have to try to eat some small breakfast before leaving home in the morning, and have a lunch and a dinner at decent times instead of supper times. And buy some stuff to stock up in the office.

There'll still be hope if I take action rather than just think about it...

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Dropped by Parkway Parade over the weekend to check out some shelves at Howard's and lunch.

We were looking for the food court at level B1 and were lucky to passed by a couple of new eateries- a Japanese mini-mart who sold fresh produce and food (which you can eat in the mini-mart), a Brazilian butchery with a bistro, and a bakery.

Needless to say, carnivore that I am, I chose the butchery and we ate at Fabianne's Bistro.

The menu was tempting, offering lots of meat dishes and wagyu beef (from Australia), grass fed beef, aged beef (where a carcass was left to "decompose" slightly in a controlled environment to enhance its flavor and texture, instead of cooking from freshly butchered cows). was that too much information? oops. Pasta, Salad and Soup AND a wine list.

I decided to be wallet conscious and only chose a "normal" steak, E chose the sausage platter of which came with one each of bratwurst, oxford and linguica served with sauerkraut, prawn pasta for the kids (they were very nice to have offered and cooked the dish without chilli) and a ceasar salad to share.

My steak (for the life of me, I cant remember the cut, not tenderloin, not sirloin but something cheaper and fatter) done medium rare (is there any other way?) was tender and satisfying charred on bits of fat. The sausages were interesting, but the sour veg was great! Pasta was good too.

The portions were very generous and the whole meal (with a lemon soda for me and beer for E) came up to about $68.00 (10% off with Citibank Cards).

Cant wait to go back there to try their other stuff, i spied Crackling skin pork belly, Bahian spicy crab soup, and wagyu beef.

But before that, I got to seriously consider their Christmas menu (raw butchered stuff for those who can and want to cook, and roasted stuff for those who only want to eat without prejudice to level of cooking skills).

Other meat places that E and I want to try: 10 at Claymore at Pan Pacific Orchard Hotel (formerly known as Negara Hotel) and Prime Society at Dempsey.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Thanks to Karen and Jenn Loong who hosted lunch and swim (for kids and Daddy cos the Moms didnt want to get wet) and tea over the Hari Raya Holiday (which E kept saying as Children's Day Holiday... ermmm... the last time we were kids were eons ago lah)

Had contributed Braised Chickent Wing to the potluck lunch.

The rest of the potluck were Fried Bee Hoon, Au-Ta, Roast Chicken, and Salad. Think we finished most of the food except for the very generous portion of Bee Hoon and Salad.

Braised Chicken Wings

For 10 Adults and 7 children below the age of 6
Prep Time ~ 30 minutes
Cooking Time ~ 2 hours

Ingredients

• 26 chicken wings (about a 2kg pack, defrost the night before and rub with salt, rinse)
• 16 Chinese mushrooms (wash briskly, soaked till plump, cut off stem, retain water) 8 Small Taupok 2 Square Taukua (cut into 6s)
• 16 quail eggs (or whatever comes in a pack, hard boiled and deshelled. DUH)
• 2 clove garlic (peeled)
• 1 half palm sized ginger (skinned and cut into big chunks so nobody will eat them mistakenly)
• 4 spoon brown sugar
• 3 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 tbsp Dark soy sauce to taste2 tbsp Light soy sauce
• 2 tbsp Chinese rice wineFive Spice Powder
• Salt & pepper to taste 2 cup boiling water (enough to cover all ingredients)

Steps

1. Heat sesame oil in pot
2. Saute garlic and ginger slices lightly
3. Add sugar, five spice powder, salt & pepper & rice wine to fry for 30 sec
4. Add mushrooms & chicken wings.
5. Add dark soy sauce to stir fry.
6. Pour retained mushroom water into the mixture.
7. Add in some more water to cover ingredients, stir well and let it simmer over low heat for 1 hour
8. Add in Taupok, Taukwa and Quail Eggs and simmer for antoher 0.5 hr or until chicken is tender.
9. Add more salt/ pepper to taste

Or if you find it too leh-cheh (troublesome), please do go ahead and throw everything into the pot, bring to boil and simmer for 1.5hr ~ 2hrs. Works too :)

Involved the kids in the cooking by having them count the mushrooms, and to deshell the hard boiled quail eggs. They loved it and told everybody that they helped "cooked".

My pot of braised chicken wings was totally lapped up even before the last guests, including myself had started. So i had only sampled 1 mushroom + 1 taukwa + sauce of my own cooking so that the others can try lah. Seriously, there werent even sauce left at the end...

Very satisfying. :)

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Oh I am so in danger of being a suaku-never-goes-anywhere...

but fret not!

Here's a short review of a new place i've checked out and i have an invite to go for Sunday brunch at mezza9 next week!

Parents had a dinner party to go to, so we didnt have home-cooked meal courtesy of the grandparents of my kids.

and since we were near Jelita and the kids LOVE the child-sized trolleys, we decided to check out the available food venues in Jelita Shopping Center.

1. O'Brien's
2. Friends@Jelita

We decided on Friends@Jelita becos they held opened the door and invited us in (not that O'Briens didnt but they didnt have a door, haha), and was most forthright (er, yeah, we have kids here) when we asked if they were children-friendly seeing their glass and classy deco

We were offered sparkling water which we declined. Just water, thanks.

And our dinner choices:

1. Caesa Salad
topped with shredded egg, parmesan shave & croutons, bacon vinaigrette

2. kids' set of Fish & Chip + Vanila ice cream + Apple juice
nicely fried breaded cod fish, NOT fish fingers! Very classy for tiny tots.

3. kids set of Hawaiian Pizza + Vanila ice cream + Orange juice
practically ham, pineapple and cheese on prata, since the base was that thin

4. Squid Ink Pasta
Not pasta made with squid ink, but pasta with squid ink cream sauce and perfectly executed squid pieces that were melt in the mouth tender, no chewing required. YUM.
They had asked very nicely if we were sharing and for our permission to change our red napkins to black. classy.

5. Beef Tenderloin - medium rare
served with roasted garlic potato & grilled vegetables. Nicely done.

6. Chilean Melot

7. HoeGarden

The surprise was since we had ordered ala carte mains for the adults, the kids' sets (complete with juice and ice cream) were FREE! nice...

Total just over $100 including +++ I guess it is ok for once-a-month outing with kids.

They have other promotions going on throughout the week with various credit cards deals, but I spied one with $2 oysters?

I'll be back.

:)

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Went up the Singapore Flyer over the previous weekend with the whole family.

The view was er... ok, nothing new if you have been in the other tall buildings around that area...

The best thing was finding a long lost favorite food of mine, biscuit a la Wendy's a million years ago, at Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits. Not as good (or did memory make everything from the past taste better?), but it will do for now.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

I can't remember which trip was it or when or even where.

Mostly likely BKK since that is the place that I've most frequently traveled recently for work.

I was riding in a car and was looking out the window (or walking very quickly along a road, I can't remember which) and something caught my eye.

A street hawker seemed to be washing his wok with a bunch of plastic straws.

Strange, I'd thought that a bunch of bamboo straws will do much better in cleaning.

And what a lot of liquid that he is using to wash his wok, hmmm... was it oil?

Very strange indeed.

I had almost forgotten about the incident until I read this article.



crispy plastic fried bananas... wow.

Then we had chicken rice ordered in for lunch, with a side dish of super crispy onion with real crunch even though the dish is stone cold from being left in the open since morning.

Super crunchy crisp onions.

.
.
.

why is my stomach feel all queasy in a sudden?

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Read Think

Finally a return to Rakuichi at Far East Shopping Center, after Dad brought the whole family there a few months back (where dinner including a sashimi boat for 7 adults and 4 kids came to over $800 and I had to convince Dad that it WAS worth it).

This time just 2 of us, D and I. My treat to D for saving my life, and is expected to concur conjure (thx CB) up more life-saving skills on short notice.

I had ordered without a care to the price, i mean~ how much can it be? ;)

So we had
- Oysters in ponchu sauce
- grilled baby sardine sheet
- salmon roe sushi
- Sashimi moriwase with uni
- Yakitori : gizzards, chicken skin, inoki mushroom wrapped in bacon, pork belly (to die for)
- chawamushi
- clear soup in tea pot
- 300ml kubota senju
- ocha
and some other stuff.

Bill came up to $250 plus and with 10% off from citibank card, it was about $225.

Well worth it.

but next time gotta leave the car at home and drink more. ;)

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Had a BBQ potluck gathering yesterday. My assignment is salad (of which i decided to try 2 diff recipes, and otah)

Since E was out of town, had to manage the marketing + kids alone

Thought I had everything covered by buying the non-perishable ingredients before my trip, and pia-ing from airport straight to supermarket to buy the veg.

But there wasnt any baby spinach leaves in sight at Cold Storage Compass Point, I went round and round, and bought 1 kg of ordinary spinach in unlabelled packagings. i thought they were a little too big (old) and will need to discard the bigger leaves and stems.

Unfortunately, when the cashier scanned the 4 x 250gm packs of veg, the readout says CHYE SIM.

can die.

but but but, supermarkets do mislable their stuff right? especially veg in what seems to be generic-used-for-everything-by-the-same-company packaging... RIGHT~?

anyways, as I reached home in my sleep deprived stage, I tried a leaf raw to see if it IS spinach.

doesnt taste like leh...

in desperation for confirmation i took a pic, mms to Leng and asked her what she thot, despite the ungodly hours.

Also NO leh. too long stems and too little leaves per stalk.

ARGH!

Ran out of the house in the morning and finally found some REAL spinach.

Assembled the recipe with ingredients:

Spinach Salad (for 10)
20 g butter decided no need.
125 g almonds, blanched and slivered replaced with toasted pine nuts because i like
570 g spinach (leaves only), rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
150 g dried cranberries
20 g toasted sesame seeds
10 g poppy seeds cannot find, replaced with some cracked black pepper
125 100 g white sugar
9 g minced onion
0.7 g paprika
75 ml white wine vinegar
75 ml cider vinegar
150 ml vegetable oil

It came out GOOD. though I was asked the recipe several times, the whole bowl was not finished cos I was late to the party and pp already ate too much of the other stuff. DUH.




oh. the other dish, a carrot thingy, didnt come out so well. 'nuff said.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

Oh, the trip came out EVEN BETTER.

Cos we managed to finish all the work, AND have lunch at PING sharkfins restaurant.

- Claypot Sharksfin
- Abalone Rice
- Claypot Fish Maw (though I prefer the fried ones better)
- Duck Feet Kway Teow
- Veg
- Coconut Jelly

BURP~*!

and then it was straight to airport, without the bosses, and we went for more sake.

Ahhhhh......

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

non-stop number crunching from touch down till 2 am (local time, meaning 3am SG time. ARGH) in the hotel room, and repeat the next morning.

Finally something different today. Managed to sneak in a 1.5 hour traditional massage after sending my draft for the locals to reconfirm the details, and promising to return to approve their confirmation, which i DID!

The massage at Chaopaya Bangkok was good, but it could have been better.

but the better came after we decided that we did all that we could in the office, and the rest could be done in our hotel after a decent dinner

so off we went to Fuji at Esplanade for good Japanese food with a local twist, fresh ingredients, and 5 bottles of 300ml sake share by 3.25 people, the 0.25 being a tee-totaller.

Nicely buzzed though barely high.

but enough of rare indulgence on a pure working trip.

cant ask for more

unless it is another traditional massage ata the airport tomorrow

or some donuts from Dunkin' Donuts before i go.

Either one will do.

Though both will be really nice!

;)

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

It is mooncake season, and this year i hadnt had many to satisfy the once-a-year cravings.

Only had a few:
- Bee Cheng Hiang 4 yolk traditional - waste of calories. dry dry dry small yolks. urgh.
- Goodwood Park Snow Skin Durian - yum, even some fibre from the durian fruit
- Goodwood Park Snow Skin Chempedak - a little on the sweet side

and that's it.

no fried yam paste from Crown Prince Hotel, no champagne mooncake from anywhere, and the festival is today.

just a tinge of regret rather than full blown disappointment though, there are larger sadness that i still need to work through.

Labels: to Despair, to Eat Drink Party

When One is being bought a meal,

but the Host is too busy to eat until the kids have been settled/fed/gone to the toilet,

One should not eat quickly and when full, tell the other companions to "Quickly eat. Dont waste. Oh gosh, I'm so full, but dont waste."

because for the very simple reason that the Host has NOT eaten yet...

Labels: to Despair, to Eat Drink Party

So we ended up in Jade instead of My Humble House because Leng didnt approve of the latter.

Making a reservation at both was easy. Even though I didnt get through to Jade at first try and left a voicemail for them to call me back, I called shortly after (in case i forgot) to make my reservations. And about 15min later, Jade called me back. cool

We were a little late from the traffic jams and were concerned that they may give our table away. Turned out that they were only about 1/3 full...

We were given 2 menus, a cheap set menu and an expensive ala carte menu (with prices stated for 1 SINGLE PORTION)... and nothing from the flower menu that was shown in the website. I was ready to be dissappointed but E said just check if the menu is available or not lor... and yes, they were and i went with the $118 set and E the $108 set. He had a beer and me a champagne.

The 6-course meal were served promptly, and E and I shared every dish. Not very nice looking, but heck... we didnt really care...

The food was perhaps overhyped by past reviews as i wasnt vowed by any of them

Some were pretty good
- "suckling pig skin + peking duck skin + foie gras" (the dish which prompted me to order that particular set),
- rack of lamb (single piece)
- lobster
- sharkfins soup

The others were just ordinary and most were overwhelming on the palate, with heavy-handed floavoring and thick sauces dressed to kill. It was unnecessary as the ingredient were fresh and subtlety would have suffice. We didnt even manage to finish the noodle and deserts, as famish as we were when we first crossed into the restaurant.

At the end and after paying just $122+ of the $330 bill by using my TL$ points, there just wasnt enough to tempt me back in a hurry.

We took a walk hand-in-hand by the rivervale side across the road and found out finally where BabyFace is, that there were other possibilities for future dining options, even just for coffee at starbucks.

And went home, satisfied, more from having made the 10th anniversary milestone and each other's company, than from the food.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

those new size 25 jeans are almost falling off my non-existent ass... and i'm hungry.

Almost every day this week i've experience urgent hunger pangs that make me shake and want to faint:
- twice while OT'ing at work becos i forgot to buy food for afternoon tea,
- twice just before bedtime at 2am becos i probably didnt eat enough at dinner (or there wasnt enough dinner to eat),
- and once when i woke up hungry.

Cant understand why, i've been eating mostly normally: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner (maybe too late) and a supper plus miscellaneous fruits and snacks...

especially considering i have not moved a single muscle yet.

does stress burn more energy?

how about being angry?

do i have worms in my stomach?

my famous words "a hungry woman is an angry woman" and my family and co-workers (even my boss) knows that when i'm hungry, i cant think and cant be made to work, i will not humor anybody for whatever and will quickly lose my temper.

which is the same reason why i've never seriously attempted any diet voluntarily, except restricted food diet when i had GD during pregancy, and when i had to undergo medical procedures. I just CAN'T.

it is getting so bad that i'm thinking of stashing food in my car. Just in case.

Must be something that can withstand heat - no chocolate
Must be able non-perishable - no "real" food
Must be not-messy - no crumbly biskuit stuff

Maybe i'll just get Energy Gels.

if they work on the run, they must work on the road too.

Labels: to Eat Drink Party

It is just not my day.

Already encountered a bully on road in the morning, and almost another incident during lunch.

Decided to have vegetarian (to rid myself of any lingering bad luck that may have contributed to the incident in the morning) but the 2 aunties were busy serving 1 young chap with his single helping and didnt notice me.

The 3 of them chatted while serving the food slowly, and i waited just to the right and beside the chap.

Then in sashayed an indian man who proceeded to the left of the young chap and signal to the aunty for eating here.

AND then the aunty nodded at him and starting to scoop rice for HIM!

SHEESH.

I starting calling out to the aunty "Hello Aunty, I was here first hor, why are you serving him first?" and I continuous repeated myself and louder each time

"Hello Aunty, I was here first hor, why are you serving him first?"
"Hello Aunty, I was here first hor, why are you serving him first?"
"Hello Aunty, I was here first hor, why are you serving him first?"
"Hello Aunty, I was here first hor, why are you serving him first?"
until she "Huh?" at me at the 5th repeat.

At this time, the indian chap had already automatically moved to the proper queueing sequence, behind me.

"I SAID I WAS HERE FIRST, AND I WAITED VERY LONG ALREADY, WHY ARE YOU SERVING OTHER PEOPLE FIRST?"

"ohhhh...." then she passed the plate of rice to the other aunty who had just finished with the young chap, and FLED into the kitchen.

and then i was served.


GOOD GRIEF.


Do i have "Bully me" tattooed on my forehead today?

try it and be sorry.

Labels: to Despair, to Eat Drink Party

Day off

E and I took leave to celebrate Kiddie E's birthday in school, and then the rest of the day to celebrate my birthday, belatedly.


Lunch

E wanted to buy me a good meal, i felt like having a bloody slab of steak but thought lunch was too early for meat. So i decided to fall back on an old favourite: Turtle Soup at MacPherson. Unfortunately it was closed! Closed? But but but it is Monday! The sign board says "closed on Tuesdays" what!!! pout* pout* pout*

E then suggested Liang Seah Street since we havent really explored that area. Okay lor... pout*

We happened to park near a Ma-lah Hot Pot place and decided to try it out on a whim, despite the hot weather. We ordered a double pot with medium heat (out of Low, Medium, High and V High settings) for the ma-la hot pot soup, and a chicken soup on the other side. Then dishes of Beef Slices, Chicken Slices, Cockles, Fish Balls, Prawns, Toufu, Spinach, Tang Oh, Chinese Cabbage, Tang Hoon, Button Mushrooms and Golden Mushrooms. We were pleasantly surprised by the good portion of each dish, unlike the famous Coca...

We were each served a dip that consisted (as much as i could tell) beaten raw egg, soy sauce, vinegar and green shallots. It was a good meal! The hot pot was just about manageable, if you were careful not to bite into those fiery peppercorns, and the savory dip doused some of the heat if you had picked up too much chilli oil with the food.

Yum yum. Mark the name, 庭园, we will be back! ahhh... soon but not thaaat soon, gotta let the stomach recover. :D

We were told later that this place served a very authentic hot pot, same as what you would get from 重庆 in China. What luck!

After that we hopped opposite the road for deserts at Ah Chew's for something cooling to douse the fire in our stomachs.


Movie

Next up was Wild Hogs (because SpiderMan 3 hasnt opened yet) at Orchard Cineleisure. 12% discount with OUB credit cards! sweet!

The succint review: City Slickers on Motorbikes with 4 guys instead of 3. Funny. Funnier if you are approaching middle-age. Too close to the bone if you ARE middle-aged.


Shopping

Orchard Cineleisure is just too young for my taste, and we hopped over to Taka instead. Angie is going to USA and offered to help buy Coach/ Furla/ DKNY/ etc stuff as they may be 50% cheaper based on current exchange rate and she knows where to buy them.

I saw this first, my style and it looked alright on me, but it was also S$875...

E offered to buy it for my birthday, but nah... EIGHT HUNDRED OVER BUCKS for a BAG?

We then strolled opposite to Tods and a beige bag with red trim that looked fabulous on me was... S$1250. good grief. To his eternal credit, E offered to buy THAT for me too. but again, seriously, no lah!

I looked at a leather key chain, and THAT was $210.

ah... i think we need to go liao lor.

.....................

We finally did buy something, a lego set for Kiddie E, 20% discount from Metro birthday card some more :)


Dinner

Even though we were strolling round Paragon, we decided not to eat at Lawry's. We were just not that hungry, and it is not doing a bloody hunk of a steak justice if you are not hungry.

We spied a small alcove inside Project Shop and decided to have a light meal there. We shared a HUGE caesar salad, a roast beef sandwich (i did get my meat fix afterall!) and a banana cream pie.

Happily, we were served by a very friendly waitress who attended to our needs but was never obstrusive or patronising. Even humoring us to check with the kitchen what was that nice smell we spied, it was pan fried salmon. Nice.

The caesar salad was good, with a poached egg, huge pieces of croton and bacon pieces. The roast beef sandwich was alright though the meat was a little tough, but the potato salad that came with an interesting crunch from celeries. :)

BUT the banana cream pie was HEAVENLY! a tall pile of whipped cream (i reckon 3 inches tall) on chunky banana slices on almost a cm thick coat of caramel on top a dense biscuit. It made me happy just LOOKING at it. And it tasted like HAPPINESS! I've found my comfort food for manic-depressive days.

What a perfect end to our park-tor date.

...........................................................................

E was just a little apologetic about not finding me a present for my birthday, but seriously, the date was good present enough.

PLUS we decided to do this every quarterly.

I cant think of anything better. :)

Labels: to Eat Drink Party, to Shop Buy