Bake escapades: Relish-ed ♥

I think a lot of my friends were raising a whole lot of eyebrows when they heard that I was going on nature trails. Well, maybe it was purely the fact that I have been willingly (read: not forced) embarking on my new healthy lifestyle with my aforementioned survival expert/professional tree chopper/lopper/biologist/bird-spotting pro friend, S.

Our destination on Wednesday was Sungei Buloh! The thing is, each time I go on these trails, I feel quite upset that it has taken me so long to get reacquainted with nature (whatever of it we have on our island). Walking into multiple cobwebs in the jungle through trails often forsaken, sharing paths with monitor lizards and gecko-lookalikes and spotting signs that warned of crocodiles is a refreshing (and sticky) change from our city jungle landscape. YES! While we didn't see one, the idea that we could cross paths with one added a whole lot of excitment to the trail.

The nature reserve itself was - to put it in one word- tranquil. It was as if we were in a completely different country. With the salty breeze in our hair, we paused from time to time trying to spot birds with S' mother-powerful binos. By the way, I can now tell a waterhen from a kingfisher after her very helpful tutorial on How to Recognise Types of Birds 101. Ask me!!

Oh and did I mention that we saw the resident family of otters? I would have taken pictures of them basking in the sun, conversing in their really cute squeaking sounds. Would have. Because my camera only has a pathetic x3 optical zoom. Because the nature-lover stranger beside me had a x30000000 optical zoom hugeass camera, and anything I attempt to take would have been amateur. Because, you have to go down and see the little darlings for yourself. ♥

And of course you have to feed the hungry trekkers, because to do otherwise would be just pure evil. I've been wanting to try Relish for the longest time. After hearing/reading rave reviews about the place, S and I decided that it was the best place to fill our tummies after our trail.

The place itself has a rather nice vibe.. quite laidback and going with the whole white-walled clean cut feel. We lucked out because it was Wednesday and they offer a fantastic deal for the ladies : free dessert with an a-la-carte order :) We both decided to go for the BBQ Pork Burger and trust me when I say that it tastes a gazillion times better than it looks (my parents haven't said really nice things about how it looks, so I guess I eat with my nose, not my eyes). The meat is braised/flavourful/tender/melts in your mouth/not charred. Plus I guess the fact that we both were thankful that we didn't order different things- we couldn't imagine giving half of it away- says a hell lot. We are such carnivores. The combination of oriental-inspired burger served on foccacia, tucked underneath the reds really worked.

S ordered the vanilla/sesame icrecream while I ordered the Pandan Pannacotta. I was expecting the pannacotta to be heavier on the cream, so I wasn't quite prepared to taste a lighter and eggier fusion version of the Brit classic. S wasn't too excited with her icecream (we swear we tasted oregano in the sesame mixture). We ended up swopping - because eaten together with the vanilla ice cream made the sesame-herb dessert work, and because S quite liked the gulamelaka -pannacotta pairing.

Can't wait till the next nature trail, or when I can join S for a spot of fieldwork :) fingers crossed for the latter!