Long time no blog

Phew, being back at school is great. Just goes to show you really need to do something to benchmark your school experience against, be it army, working (anything but holidaying), to show just how good the life is as a student.

Anyway, FOOD!

There's only one picture of food here, but I'll be damned if it ain't one of my favourites.

MUDPIE FROM ISLAND CREAMERY!!!

Totally rocked my socks. They also have strange flavoured ice-cream, the strangest of which must be the tiger beer flavoured one.I had the apple pie-flavoured ice cream and it was really good.

The sign above the counter says their ice cream is made fresh daily and it really shows. The best part really is the texture of the ice cream. It's fluffy and moist and combines real apple pie, not those bs bits you get in even haagen daaz or bnj for that matter. Of course it isn't as rich as haagen daaz but they more than make up for it with their fresh ingredients. If there was one thing that didn't really work for me, it was the slightly over-cinnamonned taste of the apple pie ice cream, but hey, you cant have everything.

So if you wanna try it out, it's at Serene Centre.

Yeah, anyway, check out this absolutely cool vespa!!

Does it not scream BEN AND JERRY'S???

Becky and Xiaofen liked it so much they decided to get themselves in the photo.

Wah, the other nite as I was going home on the bus, I saw this:

Weird guy watching DVDs on a portable DVD player.

WTH!!

It's ok if it's like a movie or something, but this chap was watching KARAOKES. Tamade.

So I figured he's some cheena guy who can't get enough of Jolin Tsai but NOOOO.... he decides to switch dvds to...

FIFTY-CENT!

Damn funny lah, he was bopping his head to "candyshop". One minute Jolin, the next 50-cent.

And the last thought of the day:


Super crappy parody of Harry, nothing is sacred in this entire range of parodies.

Later guys.

Last friday was the last day at BM and they had a farewell party for me!! I wasn't really expecting anything so it was nice how Pat surprised me with an Adidas voucher (which will go towards a new pair of shoes - Thanks guys). It then hit me why she asked me out of the blue if I preferred Nike to Adidas -.-

Too bad I didn't have a camera on hand (since i wansn't expecting a party) or I wouldv'e been better able to capture the my last day there, at least for the next 5 months. Even though you got the feeling that it's something they do for every person leaving the company, it was kinda nice how they bother to have a celebration at all.

I guess I'll miss the folks there for their intelligent sense of humour, easy-to-get-along-type personalities and, well, their widely-read knowledge of obscure facts brought about by reading 14 newspapers every morning of every day.

So, thanks guys. You could've made it hard, but you didn't. Like Krishna says to Lathi before enlisting in Michael Chiang's 1998 play Army Daze, "This is not goodbye, it is merely a farewell..."

(I didn't get it either)

Loof on the house

The folks at BM had a night's out last Tuesday, and it was pretty interesting, haha. .

Anyways, PHOTOS!

(Luwyn, Aaron, Eric, Pat, Gen, Me)

Damn. I could get used to this.

Ok, this deserves a paragraph all on its own.

This, my friends, is a WET CUCUMBER. hahahahaha. The names of their drinks are damn funny lah. E.g. Steady-pom-pi-pi, Wet Cucumber... and ....

wait for it...


wait for it...


Pimp's Cup!

WTH!

They don't taste too bad, especially when they're free ;)

I suppose you're never too old for some bunny ears.

(Girl Gamer, Hot-Bod, Mr Pfizer, Ms Yellow-ribbon, Eve,
Back: Danny-the-magnificent, Anush, Amit)

We are suckers for publicity.

Oh, and this is like, the only picture with Carol, one of the people I work closely with. All Blacks!

These are the amount of drinks...left.

Disillusioned with beautiful celebrities

I don't know what reel beauty is anymore.

Living la vida loca?

This is what greets you as an entry-level public relations executive each and every monday morning (actually every morning, but mondays are especially bad). Without fail, the horizon of newsprint promises to extend from one end of the rather long table to the other, three waves in all.

Prelude to an interesting conversation

One of the guys that works at an adjacent company popped by and exclaimed:

him: you know, you guys have the best job in the world!

us: *blank, groggy stare*

him: All you guys do is read the papers every morning and drink coffee, fantastic!

us: *groggy stare*

him: I wish I had..

us: *stare*

him: your...

us: *glare*

him: *picks up breifcase and walks off*

hahaha.

Oh well, here's my favourite candy store in the world. OKAY, Singapore. OKAY, so it's the only candy store I know. Bah.

Ahah! what's that she's holding on to?

let's find out...
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.
.
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Smith's sweet thai chilli sauce crisps!!

And here's a shoutout to my dearest darling, who somehow managed to endure four years of 2-day study weeks and unlimited overnight mahjongs

@ Suntec Convention hall. Darn. Why is everything better at smu?

I heart Changi Airport

I think you kinda figure out you're weird when you enjoy travelling the length of the island, small as it is, to eat fried chicken. It's not just popeyes though, I like many things about hanging about both terminals: the cafes, the refreshing sound of many different tongues and, of course, popeyes. They all make the airport one of my favourite places to go on a weekend when we both don't feel up to mixing with the maddening crowd.

You feel free. Free like you can jet off to some exotic island in the Carribean or join the world cup winners in Milan. Free like you can throw a dart at a map and disappear without worrying anybody. Free like that. The moment often passes, but sometimes I see myself at a time where I'll jet off with the missus every year for that short break where we don't have to queue everywhere, betting outlets will offer something more tempting than 2.20 for an Italian win and dry wit is accepted rather than interpreted as an attempt at dethroning the government.

Which is why it infuriates me to take the sky train between terminals. There's no reason for me to take the damn train, really. Popeyes is at T1, so is the deli that stocks honey-mustard-onion pretzels. But I take it every time anyway. Just to see if Singaporeans change over time. If, given time, they will learn to allow passengers to get off the train before rushing into the half-full carriage.

I. Don't. Understand. It.

It travels for the better part of 200m, taking a grand total of what, 30 seconds? Yet we are gripped by the relentless desire to be rude and devoid of all social graces on the sky train. Bah. Which is why I want to go overseas whenever I can.

Oh well, at least while we're here we can enjoy this...

Popeyes rocks my socks

Just HAD to post this picture, haha, nostalgic snack

Peace.

Straits Times wishes me happy birthday

Recent makan trails

It's amazing what we find hidden amongst dreary housing estates. I was just trudging along after lunch one day when I came upon what surely must be the mother-of-all-eggtarts. It was an old-school bakery with a shelf filled with the most incredibly huge egg tarts I've ever seen.

Period.

It's so huge its almost the size of an average ricebowl (my thumb is nearer to the camera than the tart, so its not to scale, doh!)

Mother-of-all-egg-tarts

And then, there was the time we went to Parkway for the good ol' Mee Rebus. $3 and chock full of everything Mee Rebus should contain, if you don't mind the owner's own take on the historical dish which now comes with black sauce and a very practical-factory-style kind of presentation. Still, a tummy-filler.

This is the amount left after she's done with it.

The long, ardous road to completion

And then, the other night before heading down to the Liang Seah Street dessert shop, we had dinner at this Purvis Street place selling 'authentic' beef noodles. The sand-looking thing is really just ground peanut.

oodles of noodles

I don't know very much about this dish, though this stall claims to have been around for the past like, 3-4 decades so, I guess if there is a definitive 'authentic' beef hor fun, it's found at Purvis Street.

Yay, going to Hong Kong (cafe) on wednesday...

Peace out~

Ps: My office people are totally freaked by the no-smoking ban which was enforced today. Haha.

Long week

Phew.

It's been a long, long week with loadsa stuff going on right now. Thankfully, in the moments between work and chron and other non-leisure related activities, I've managed to take some snapshots of the past week. Am so tired now I'm just gonna post photos and maybe if the pictures stir something in my food-man i'll leave some comments...

Tea at mark's and spencers in centrepoint. Perfect for resting those tired legs.

Dinner at Da Paolo's. Me and duck liver-ed pasta

Sigh, I guess there's really a reason why these expensive places cost so much. It's really worth it for that special night.

9 little pieces of heaven. from sins. oh, the irony

And that, my friend, is how you celebrate a 23rd birthday. Oh, with a mention in the Straits Times too ok, mai siao siao.

Anyway, here's the view of a tower-dweller.

Ah. The rarefied air of the 40th storey.

Got executive toilets also, haha.

Cheerios~ Next stops: Hong Kong Cafe, Pirates of the Carribean, Popeyes?

-Peace out-

First day @ BM

Chez moi @ BM

Yay! Finally got my ass outta the house doing something constructive this hols. It's been fun bumming but I'm finding out that I'm really not the bummer sort.

Anyway.

This is my very own PC haha.

Didn't manage to get a picture of the view, which, at 40 levels above mere mortal level at suntec city, is astounding. I think I can see to like, Bedok if I stretch enough.

The people there are really friendly, especially my immediate superiors. No airs man, all first-name basis. Basically pressed the flesh early in the day and was settled by ten plus, whereupon I was entrusted with my first project... Media monitoring. zzz.

Ah well, I suppose it could be worse. The day progressively got better with 2 other projects which are really interesting and not at all what I thought I'd get to do at my lowest-level-below-recruit status. I think the worst part of the day was finding out that my diet will be absolutely destroyed in the course of working here.

Take the lift down, the lift door open, immediately I see what? ROYCE CONFECTIONARY! ne ne. The incredibly smooth champagne hokkaido chocolate ah. Pheewweeet. Heaven.

Damn. Goodbye diet.

Even if I try to close my eyes and walk down to the food court below, guess what awaits me...

!!!!!

Sian half.

Anyways, this is the food-picture of the day: mini-pastry from Sun Moulin. 5 for $2:40. Cheap cheap!

Chinese people eat everything

Heaven.

Although it may look pretty much like some weird Asian gunk (which it is), it really is a national treasure. Tau Yu Te Kah. Pig trotters in black sauce. mmm.

Hah. That alone will probably scare off most foreignors. but wait till you add this...

Pork ribs in a light, peppery broth

Yum. The past few days have been amazing, food-wise. Mumsie made pineapple rice, which turned out pretty nice...

Conceived in Thailand, Made in Singapore

Fried rice paradise
Nasi goreng very nice
Book a table very wise
That is what I'd do...
If I were you

-Dick Lee

Pre-match meal

Take a couple of saugsages fried in butter, throw in a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich, sunny side up egg, some fruit, and top it all off with a cup of steaming black brew.

Viola~ World cup bliss.

PSLE maths is hard

50.

XXX bought some pens and erasers in the ratio of 3:2. An eraser costs 20 cents more than a pen. XXX spent $174 in all. He spent $6 more on pens than erasers. How many erasers did he buy? [5m]

basket.

Teacher's challenge... failed.

Date Night 090606

Fish Head Steamboat!!

This.Is.Powerful.Stuff.

I think this must be Whampoa market's worst kept secret. The whole market is like, reserved for this stall at night or something and the place is frickin packed after 6pm. Which is why we went at 5:59 haha.

The unsmiling auntie will take your order and peg it onto an extremely long line of pegs in front of the poor guy (yeah its just one person doing all the cooking). Once you're like, only 5 pegs away from the front of the line, they'll bring you the utensils and chilli and stuff like that. Usually by that time my stomach is really growling and I start to eat chilli. No, seriously.

When your boiling pot of heaven finally arrives after (number of pegs X 5-10 mins) they bring with them four optional side dishes.

So anyway, the food, the food.

We had the ang kor li (red snapper) fishhead steamboat. The pot comes to you brimming with ingredients like extremely fresh fish, sticks of fried yam, bits of dried salted fish and cabbage. It all sounds very blah and plain but I assure you, there's absolutely nothing blah about the rich stock or the unmistakable wok hei (taste of fire) in the soup.

I don't particularly like steamboat but this is nothing like anything I've ever tasted. The sweetness of the fish contrasts beautifully with the generally salty flavour of the stock. The chunks of yam retain their unique flavour, and even having been immersed in the soup for long periods of time still manage to retain a crunchy outer crust which yields to a gooey center.

Even the cabbage plays a part in this traditional teochew delight, its natural sweetness and wonderful texture giving the dish balance and the feeling that everything in the pot is there for a reason. Oh, did I mention that the salted fish is edible? It is an absolute delight to have a piece of this to slowly crunch on while mulling on your next forray into the pot.

Now on to the side dishes. As I mentioned before, the unsmiling auntie will bring you 4 sides: lor duck, buay chai, lor egg and something else in a tupperware container I have never tried in 5 visits.

The duck and the fermented veggie are POWER. I think they will survive just selling those two dishes with rice. The duck simply melts in your mouth, as does the veggie. The duck gravy is positively decadent and if you look closely enough you'll see many many spots of oil floating on the surface. Ditto the veggie. I suppose this is not a really healthy meal but I've never been a calorie counter now, have I.

The whole meal costs $15 for the small steamboat, and $3 each for the sides plus rice $1 = $22!! not really cheap but it works out better if you go in fours or fives.

PS: If you're picking a weekday to go, don't go on tuesdays. It's closed. I found out the hard way.

PPS: The sugar cane stall there cheat ppl money one, add water into your drink. pui.

Dessert!

Mango with sago

After the thoroughly satisfying dinner, I went with darling to this quaint little traditional dessert shop on Liang Seah Street. I usually don't dig those places which bank on the nostalgia factor to draw in the crowds cos' I think its pretty cheesy, but hey, when its good, whatever man.

This place is known for their hot desserts like almond paste, ginko nut and tau kee and black sesame paste to name a few, but their cold desserts rock too. She had the mango with sago, a pretty simple dessert which is above average by virtue of the fact that their magoes are sweet and not too mushy. However, I felt that the coconut milk was slightly too strong and overpowered what would have been a very mango-ey dessert.

I had, this:

Almond paste

Shucks, everytime I get something I get so excited I start to slurp it down when i mean to take a shot of it first. Oh well, I suppose it'll suffice.

The paste is extremely smooth, probably because they actually strain every single bowl's worth of paste before serving it. It was also heartening to taste the bitter aftertaste (from the almond kerns) of the dessert, guarenteeing that it wasn't just almond essence they added to milk, but actually bothering to use real almonds. Not too bad, though pastes just aren't really my thing.

So anyway, the prices here are reasonable. Oh, and just get the small serving if you're there like, for dessert. It's pretty big already. I dunno who eats the large servings.

Until the next makan adventure.

Peace out~

Blueberry Muffins!

Woot!! My very own blueberry muffins. Darn. I rock.

Packed Day

Woot~ Today is gonna be PACKED man. First off I'm gonna be baking blueberry muffins with the new oven before going down to Mediacorp for my 4.5 sec of fame on some trailer/advertisement thingy my friend is working on haha. I'm supposed to be some football-crazy guy (not too hard) watching a 3G broadcast of a WC match or something like that. Oh well. Extras cannot complain right.

And then it's off to tutor my boy Jingren. This boy ah, very intelligent. Actually I don't quite know why his parents get tuition for him also. He damn zai already, tutor what. And he's damn cute also. haha. Everytime I get stuck wondering how to explain a maths question to him he will turn the hourglass he has in front of him and say...

jingren: "Teacher's challenge!"

me: "..."

jingren: "See if you can explain to me before the time runs out!"

me:"mumble mumble"

jingren:"hahahahaha"

me:"aha! got it!"

jingren:"yay! Teacher's challenge...Success!"

He's damn funny right!! haha. anyway there are many many other funny things he does. I shall post another entry with pictures of today's baking but for now, it's adios amigos~

Peace.

Buttermilk cookies...mmm... suppose I should just try to make them instead of always going back to popeyes haha.

Recipe for Buttermilk cookies
http://www.therecipebox.com/members/box/cookie/cookie015.htm

Anyway, world cup is coming!! Woo! And theres gonna be a world cup get together at clarence's place this friday to watch the opening match of *yawn* germany and Costa Rica.

Today was spent settling. Again. Oh, and run-cum-bak-jut-teh is finally on! next tues morning! woo! It's so strange I seem to be running just so I can afford to eat. Haha. Oh well, suppose I'm definately of the live-to-eat variety.

Oh, oh imma gonna eat fish head steamboat this week! woot!

Crap. Feel like a technosaur. I just accidentally my previous post. Oh well. Here are some pictures, again.

Hello that's me

Peek-a-boo

Woo! Settled the whole of yesterday at Justin's. Did stupid things like countdown to 6:30pm (the latest we've ever played settlers) and drink our fill of peach tea and coke, haha.

Anyhow, I think I shall attempt to turn this blog into a food-blog. hah. Yes. So from now on I shall record all my nice meals, recepies and other gastronomical experiences as a form of NS. hah, so there.

Food for thought.

- Bak Kut Teh with Zheng

- Bake Buttermilk Biscuits

- Have a kick-ass BBQ with the CS folk

- Go to Menotti’s again

Sigh. Wonder when I’ll be able to accomplish all these things. Ah well. Settlers again! Haha I think I’m going to be spending a LOT more time at Justin’s place in Serangoon Gardens…