Wallpaper sized loof with additional people!

Here's to all those who comprained about the awkward sizing and their lack of appearances. Enjoy. To do this I had to find out how many pixels is one pica ok, stupid windows indesign.

I can't wait for Loof Deux

See lah Chit, now I damn gian. Stick this trailer on your blogs people. We'll have kick-ass hype like The Dancefloor. Only the real thing will rock.

A day of feasting

As promised, here are the pictures from today's visit to her Grand Aunt's place...

Be afraid. Be very afraid. Because what you are about to see will shock you.

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EIGHTEEN DISHES FOR LUNCH!

Can you dig it?!

They started cooking at 530 in the morning to prepare the following dishes (which I can remember)

Oyster sauce kailan
Potato and leek vegetable wrap (hakka dish)
Paper-wrapped chicken in black sauce
Braised duck
Hakka yong tau foo
Asam pedas
Deep fried codfish
Deep fried prawn dumplings
Hae chor (prawn wrap, something like ngoh hiang)
Roast pork
Steamed chicken
Sambal prawns

That's all I can recall eating. For lunch. After which I was told we would be headed for her mum's boss's place.

For dinner.

Damn nice house.

Sedap kueh pie tee!!

There was this huge tent which we went into to get food (incredible, since we already spent the better part of the day stuffing ourselves) and there was Pie tee, roast pork, roast duck, steamed chicken (notice the similarities), tang yuan, sea coconut with white fungus soup, satay, mee rebus, fondue, fruits, and more. There was also this:

Interesting looking ingot-shaped thing. Which I never tried, but looked nice. =)

And then, when we were about done, we found out that there was, gasp, another Peranakan counter on the other side of the tent. !!. Oh well, time to hit the gym tmr.

CNY rocks.

CNY lai liao

Yusheng like it's supposed to be. Awesome.

The result of my mum slaving away in the kitchen for at least 3 hours...

Many many ingredients.

This is how yu sheng should look like what. Not some weird-assed chendol looking slivers of artificially coloured jelly. Heck, it doesn't even contain fish. This one vegetarian yusheng ok. But hor, damn shiok. Seriously. I don't think I've tried better yusheng than the one my mum makes. Aww.

Reunion dinner with the Tan clan.

Grandma Tan had ten children, of which my Dad was one. We have reunion dinner with three others (and their children) every year, less than ten people in all, no need to book room.

Satay and wine. Anything goes.

Food also can action-shot one.

Top view of lo-hei

Steamboat

Steamboat from another angle

Year year got fish...jelly


My cousin Xuan, the cutest 4 year-old in the world.

Super cute!!!

PI-mate and I after our fourth glass of the white stuff.

More pictures from the office party and from tomorrow's visit to the missus's relatives'. Where a feast awaits. A Hakka feast...

Dong Dong Chiang

Everyone got one of these, haha. Super cheesy and funny.

They don't taste all that bad, actually

"Your ability for accomplishment will follow with success!!"

Andrew made cheese cake! We like.

The pantry after we tried to cheenafy it.

We had popiah from old long house. Skin sucked, otherwise okay.

Pretty bottled new year goodness. Ahhh.

Four plates of lohei, but after we loh-ed only left two, haha.

Guestbook trial. This is pretty cool

Photoshop + bored Danny = wu liao posters

*Wry smile*

He's been around the world, baby.

The Danivore

Seven servings of topside beef, Four pieces of char-grilled chicken, Three pork sausages, Two slabs of honey-glazed ham, Two slices of grilled pineapple, One chunk of salmon later, I emerged from the Carnivore - A Brazilian meat buffet place at Vivo - $50 poorer and a whole lot happier.

Carnivore: Can you handle it?

Yeah, I most certainly can.

I went for their lunch buffet, which is definitely worth the $19+++ per person. But I wouldn't pay any more, because other than the grilled meat (which is really the only reason to visit), the salad bar really isn't up to standard. No effort, lah. Just put all the chapalang dishes onto one table spread makes it a salad bar meh? No theme, no creativity, no point. Might as well just advertise it as a meat buffet and spare us the tummy-space.

Anyway, the food, the food.

Far and away the best of the afternoon: topside beef.

Awesomeness.

That's a green olive stuck on my fork.
I didn't realise how different black and green olives taste. Hmm.

I was told that there were different cuts of beef, but then turns out the full range is only available for the dinner buffet. Darn. And I was looking forward to beef rump.

No worries, topside is pretty decent already. It is an incredibly decadent feeling to have carvers hover around your table with chunks of glistening topside beef, and other tasty morsels. The surface cuts were certainly tastier than those closer to the centre of the roast, owing to the generous amount of marinade each roast receives.

Oh, and beef fat is certainly much better tasting (in my opinion) than other types of animal fat, especially when roasted on a spit. The strong, rich flavour that bursts in your mouth with each bite leaves you wanting more, while knowing your growing tummy can hardly afford it. You succumb anyway.

Yep. The missus likes her Capirinha just fine.

The chicken also deserves a mention, though. The texture is fantastic, the flavour locked in due to the slow-cooking method employed by the owners. The chicken skin is crisp and flavourful, and is well basted in marinade for that extra oomph.

And, and, the roasted pineapple was damn good! I know you're probably going "Huh, pineapple also can roast one meh?" The answer is a big, fat, YES. Succulent and sweet, you know that it's not your average pineapple when the carver's knife slides effortlessly from top to bottom of the juicy fruit.

Honey glazed ham and pork sausages were decent, but nothing to blog about.

Now, one thing you should note if you're planning to go to Carnivore is that while they have a bunch of waiters, they only have two designated "carvers". For a restaurant that seats about 60 - 80 (I estimate), it's certainly insufficient. As a result, you have to wait about 5-7 mins for each serving of meat.

Also, you should try to grab a seat on either extreme of the kitchen. We sat somewhere in the middle, and ended up mostly getting third or fourth cuts of the meat, which usually resulted in some medium rare cuts. Not that I'm complaining, as the texture of medium rare beef is exquisite to say the least, but to miss out on the roasted beef fat (only found on the surface) is cardinal.

To clear up any doubts about the cost of lunch, I paid $58 all in, including a $12 Capirinha. $19 per person for a weekend lunch is pretty decent if you ask me, even though they reserve the prime cuts for dinner.

Carnivore VivoCity
1 Harbour Front Walk, #01-161/162, Singapore 098585
Tel: 63769939

Taste: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Ambience: 4/5

Yeah. I like it. I'll be back.

Corduroy Cafe, Ayam Penyet

Chocolate Royal, $6.80

Chocolate chip cupcake had weird silver ball-bearing lookalike topping

Water is served free - in a stylo vase, no less

So we were at Vivo yesterday and we came across this very stylo-looking cafe which has a great view (well, they all do at vivo), and went in to have tea.

Turns out, this place is really very nice, but price also very nice - $26 for two drinks and two pastries, +++ some more.

I guess it's a really good place to meet up with that friend you haven't met up with for years, as the chairs are very comfortable and the decor tastefully done. It reminds me of menotti's at Raffles City, if only for the similar standard in pastries and devotion to detail.

I had the cupcake, which was really pretty, and pretty good too (ok, lame attempt). The cream was fresh, not those overly jelat type that you have at those neighbourhood pastry shops. It was light and the cupcake was moist. The best part was it wasn't even hot and had been left there for quite some time it seemed, but hey, it still tasted ok.

The missus had the oreo chocolate milkshake which was oh-so-good; smooth and milky - she said too milky - and with oreo chunks at the shake-bed. I thought it was pretty darn good, and I've had some shakes. As for the Chocolate royal, not too bad, but nothing really royal (argh, there I go again).

So I went surfing hoping to find the website for this ultra-chic yet laid-back cafe and that's when I found this ....

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Corduroy Cafe

01-106 VivoCity
Tel: 6376-9895

After 9pm on weekdays only, pastries and desserts are sold one-for-one. Items include apple rhubarb crumble (usual price $6.80), panna cotta with wild berry compote ($6.80) and assorted cupcakes ($2.50).

WAH LAO!!!(*&#(@*&)(#$&(*#&$ waste money

Anyways

Corduroy Cafe
Taste: 4/5
Value: 2/5 (well, 4/5 after nine on weekdays)
Ambience: 5/5

Had the much-vaunted ayam penyet with the bates people

Hmm. Well, it's not bad, but not very worth it price-wise. It's $5.50 for a plate of fried chicken, blanched kangkong, deep fried tofu and extremely extremely hot sambal. Really, the sambal is the star here. Chicken and others are not bad, but not worth it also.

Ayam Penyet House
Taste: 3/5
Value: 2/5
Ambience: 3/5