Why I live for weekends

I know, I know, the photo above is overexposed and (insert photography-junkie jargon) whatnot, but I couldn't help but choose it. Life's all about imperfections, not a perfections right?

Spent the weekend with the family as usual, and headed over to MinJiang for dimsum. Because it was decided a little last minute, all the indoor sitting were already reserved and we had to go for alfresco dining. But, seriously, I don't think I would have wanted it any other way! Yes, we had the insane heat beating down our backs, yet somehow, everything felt less stifling and a whole lot more relaxed. And although I do think dimsum really is how-to-present-prawns-in-1million-different-ways in disguise, the food was excellent and quite the perfect way to start a lazy Sunday.

All I need now is coffee from Palheta.

B.

I've been pretty tied up with my new found job (yes, my fairy jobmother finally paid a visit), and trying to make best friends with microsoft excel pivoting and whatnots. For a girl who has been using microsoft word all her life, this is a super duper uber steep learning curve and I'm proud to say that I can pivot like a pro now! woot!

So, with work being the new boyfriend, I have barely enough time to breathe. But still, we all need to eat. And one can really only take away excel woes with copious amounts of sugar, or in Saturday's case, treacle.

S took me to her latest find and we finally got both our brie fix. But what really caught my eye were the glazing sticky buns sitting right beside the cakes screaming 'Eat me now!'. And you can't say no to that, can you?

Oh and who can resist a smile when you chance upon sunshine cookies?

























B Bakery
15 Bussorah Street S(199436), Arab Street

So I lived to see the Greek Sunset

The Greek trip I took this year was one helluva trip. From crashing ATVs to seeing riots+shouting+chaos unfold before my eyes - I think I left Greece shell-shocked and never really recovered from all that. Yes, the people were friendly, the islands were spectacular and the food was great. But, it has taken me 8 months worth of hindsight to see this.

























But I'm incredibly thankful that I lived to catch the gorgeous Greek Sunset at Oia and that the huge bruises peppering my limbs didn't require much medical attention save for an xray (that mysteriously disappeared).

I guess the best part of the trip was properly enjoying Greek cuisine. After all, it was here that I fell in love with Feta and Moussaka. It was also here in Greece that we got to climb the beautiful cobbled pathways in the freezing midnight spring wind (resolutely to the pub in the middle of the labyrinth). It was here that I finally got to see the sugarcube houses and blue-domed churches of Santorini. And it was here that I made one of the best decisions.

You've never really lived, till you have lived. Oui?

Un plus, s'il vous plaît

I guess maturity found its way to me this year. All that jazz last year with the customised cake, the one thousand parties and non-stop clubbing has been firmly replaced with something much simpler. No one ever said you needed to have a lot of money and friends to make a birthday a meaningful one.

All you need is close friends, good croissants and excellent coffee.

We found our way to Mirabelle Patisserie (chef's LCB alum, yay!)- to have one of its famed croissants. But we had to settle for just the PainauChocolat in the end (instead of both Chocolat and Frangipane) because the Frangipane Croissant was sold out. At 11am.

Left the shop with a couple more treats but the PainauChocolat never did get to meet the camera ):

Wish I bought one more for the road.

When you have Breakfast for Dinner

Sometimes, don't you just feel that having pasta/rice/(insert random dinner menu here) just doesn't cut it for dinner? Well, I felt just like that on Monday. And thankfully, the gang was also sick of having dinner for dinner :)

So off we went to Hatched, a relatively new place specializing in all-day breakfast. Whywhywhy you may ask?

1. You don't have to queue. I've heard the horror stories about the queues at breakfast/brunch.
2. No one said you can't have brioche+bananas+bacon+maple syrup for dinner (bytheway, the picture turned out awful, so I decided not to put it up). While the bacon insert was a tad weird, I'm always up for anything.
3. It feels like you're having brunch/dinner/brinner in Stockholm. I think both the reindeer and the light wood furniture had something to do with it.

I highly doubt the Swedes enjoy the oily, greasy, quintessential brit breakfast (oodles away from minimalist perfection, if you ask me). But, the home-like, christmassy vibe kinda worked out. And when you can actually have conversations (not shouting matches) over a meal out (at a pocket-friendly place) -- I say that's a great place!

Hatched
26 Evans Road, #01-06 Evans Lodge

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!


























Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
301 Neo Tiew Crescent
Singapore 718925

Relish
501 Bukit Timah Road
#02-01 Cluny Court

Venturing East

So I've heard countless ravings about all the fantastic eats in the East, but the thing is - no amount of persuasion can get my very practical dad to drive all the way just to eat the newest big thing in Singapore. Don't get me wrong, Singapore isn't big at all. In fact, we are really tiny. Many foodies don't mind the queues, the drive or the belly, but the truth is, patience never did run strong in the family's veins. Unless it's been given 10 thumbs up, a twenty minute drive across our little island has never been deemed that worth it. (We are just plain lazy)

Well, I decided to put an end to all this slothlike behavior and thus found myself in Joo Chiat with Jia on Friday. The latest brainchild from the people who brought us Awfully Chocolate, Everything with Fries is basically your burger shop - a tad more upmarket and with the very obvious product differentiation. I had the lamb burger while Jia had the pork and both were rather decent garb. I was a little disappointed in the variety of fries offered -with a more varied assortment of flavourings compared to type of fries (thickcut or shoestring) the apparent main actor seemed a little lacklustre and didn't quite rise to expectations.





















Nonetheless, couldn't stop grinning when I saw this :

Altitude: 163.3m

Armed with backpacks (circa 2003), water bottles, digital gear (cameras for me and binocs for S) and insect-repellant-d legs/arms/ears/necks, S and I finally set off to conquer the highest altitude in Singapore.

Yes, okay, scoff all you want. Our highest altitude is mere flatland compared to the Mt.Everest, but the nature trails are definitely worth a hike for the explorer in you. Although there really isn't anything much to see apart from trees, we did manage to spot squirrels, pigeons (colourful ones!) and families (and families) of monkeys.

Having grown up under the watchful eye of my overprotective dad, nature trails and treks were never really part of the weekend agenda. From what I can remember, we did go for one or two nature walks, but all that mysteriously died down after I turned 7 (and probably around the time when the little sister flatly declared that she was tired and didn't want to climb the hill halfway through our hike. Mind you, it was just the boring path up and down). Such a pity really, because shouldn't a childhood be filled with adventure and exploration? Shouldn't it be about kids learning more about nature (without the parents fussing around their grimy offsprings?)

Well, S (the more seasoned hiker/climber/lopper/survival expert) and I decided to go for the Green Trail- which looked really promising. We thought we were doing great - all the way until we reached the mid-point and saw the two grannies that were in front of us at the start halfway through their stretching exercise. Can you say Embarrassment (with a capital E) any louder? My only consolation is that we made it to the end and back down well ahead of our targeted time frame of 3hours.

And of course, we had to go for our breakfast #2. Rounded up our healthy morning exercise with the not-so-healthy iced milo, teh tarik, plain prata and muffins from the local bakery - pure bliss.

Day-Trippin' cross the Causeway

Eating at Kelongs- Seafood Restaurants on Stilts (i think), has been somewhat a memory of the past for me. Whenever we made family trips up to Bintan in Indonesia, or Tioman Island, eating at a Kelong would be mandatory. I loved the fact that we could go fishing around the area, and get the cook to season and fry it the way we like it.

So, starting off our journey rather late and with a very very empty stomach, the 5 of us formed a search-party for the best kelong in JB. And of course the search party thing is silly, all we had to do was to ask the taxi driver to take us to the restaurant with the best seafood, and we were there pronto. JP's rather fluent Malay expedited the whole process while bringing the cousin's supposed knowledge of Malay to shame.

Empty stomachs usually creates false impressions of vast appetites, and we fell for that trap! Amongst the 5 of us, we had 9 coconuts (an entire tree really), baby squid, la-la(s), cereal prawns, tofu, vege, egg, and of course Lobster- done in 2 different ways no less. Phwaarrr. So we point out what we want in the life seafood tanks they had, and next thing we knew, the chef does something amazing to it.

At the end of it, JP was our last man standing. He literally polished up everything saying 'Don't waste the prawns'. The rest of us just stared while he did his job.

Now, I'm regretting not snatching the last prawn away from him. Darn.

Road Tripp-ed

Road tripped with the guys over the weekend all over Southwest UK. I must say that being the only girl on the trip meant being treated like a princess- from being driven around, to getting the comfy bed, to the guys helping me hold my hp/camera/wallet. So, driving around with a rough destination in mind we ended up going to Stonehench (yawn)- Amesbury (for breakfast)- Bath (for lunch)- Exeter (double yawn)- Torquay (for dinner)- St Austell (for the night)- Minarck Theatre (with its AMAZING view)- Land's End- New Quay-Bodwin- Launceston. It was a crazy amount of cities covered over 2 days, at the expense of dave and gang's 'clutch' muscles. I saw UK in a completely different light - I never thought I would ever say this, but the UK does have its pretty sights.




















We probably spent more time in the car than sightseeing but it was great fun! Having a different meal in a different city was crazy, but we did get to try really good food in both Bath and Torquay :)














Lunch at Bath was at Sally Lunn's Tea House. Having been there with the lover a few weeks back, I decided that it was probably the best place to bring the guys to. I love Sally Lunn's. While its buns are seriously not that fantastic, I love being in the teahouse. The victorian style interiors and the bustle of the salon just screams perfect. Quaint stuff- I like. All of us had the smoked salmon bun while dave tried the rare-bit (a mixture of cheese) which tasted equally yummy.

















Dinner at Torquay - the English Riveria, @ No.7. Gang did mention how the English never had anything authentic, that most of the sights were a semblance to some other famous landmark. Well, perhaps its true. But somehow, I do feel that food sets cities and countries apart. Cuisine should be revered as a landmark, dammit. Afterall, isn't it true that no two cities have their food the same way. Similarities, yes, but yet, somehow every city retains a unique-ness to their style.

Using Dave's trusty-for-the-day wireless internet, we found 'No. 7' - a Michelin rated restaurant in Torquay. The seafood was so impeccably fresh and was so well done, I swear the scallops melted in my mouth. I mean, even the bread (that came with our starter) was marvellous. And to have a table full of people gawking at how crispy yet soft the bread was - was crazy. But it happened.














And although food the next day was a Chicken-Cottage lookalike place in Launceston, the trip itself was way fun. City-hopping was great, the company was great, and yes, the food was fantastic! It made my week-long abstinence from carbs well-worth it. I can't wait for the next road-trip! Whee!

Bruxelles

The Lover and I did a day-trip to Brussels over the weekend. Yes. A day trip. We've heard stuff about Brussels, stuff that didn't really entail us spending more than 14hours over there. So, a day trip it was then. To be very honest, Brussels was great! The people were incredibly friendly, though there weren't that many of them out and about, the food was great, and it snowed. So triple yay!




















Because we didn't really pre-plan our trip, we basically wandered around the city, zooming into places that our tattered piece of map that we got from the train station recommended. And although the pictures aren't really in chronological order, I thought i'd start with moules et frites. Quintessential Belgian food, we had ours done with white beer, and it came in a humongous pot. We ate that for a record breaking 2.5hours. The bar/restaurant was perfect- with people shuffling around, boistorous music, talk and laughter and yet strangely, non-invasive. Well the mussels were fantastic and the beer was equally good. I had a hoegaarden rosee (raspberry), and that was much much better than hoegaarden. I'm not a fan of white beer, or beers for that matter, unlike my newly-inspired beer-loving partner.





















In between locating cathedrals and the shopping streets (which we never got to, pity), we chanced upon the red/green tent. Our almost ziltch knowledge of french ordered us raw oysters instead of raw mussels. But really, we weren't complaining. The mussels were HUGE! they were incredibly creamy and just (ok, i really can't find another word here), orgasmic. We slurped down 3 each before talking to each other. Screw conversations and small-talk in between each. We saw, we scooped it all up, and we finished them all.




















We stopped for some soupe poisson (fish soup) after trying to locate the shopping street to no avail, and yup- best decision all day. With all the snow and my very soaked boots, the piping hot soup was my comfort food. and seriously, i don't think you can ever have too much seafood in a day. ever.




















One of the recommended places on our tattered map was this chocolate place - but obviously, that was way out of my meagre budget of the day, so it was to remain a feast for the eyes only. damn.















So there, our trip to Brussels ended with us at the cool bar/restaurant, taking 2.5hours to finish our humongous bowl of mussels. I do think the waitress thought we were wierd. After all, I don't think 1 person takes that long to finish a bowl, let alone 2 people. And for the uninitiated, and those who read the lover's blog where there's a fugly picture of me- i really needed to put this picture up and exclaim that we all have bad photo days. Well, me, I have bad photo hours.

Hats and me really don't go together. I must stop trying.

Tea Party-ing

I am a fervent advocate of food therapy, food psychology, food-anything. The current flatmates have noticed my certain inclinations towards bribing friends, neighbours and possibly future love interests with food. But, while I enjoy sharing what I make with my friends, I do enjoy very occasional treats for myself. Especially when I am back home in Singapore hanging out with my best friend.

The Tea-Party along 6th Ave back home has been my favourite hang out tea-joint since I was in Junior College. Chancing upon it purely my chance, I loved the place for its mod interiors, amazing white tea and out-of-this-world scones. Yes, scones. Something quintessentially british, but I've never been able to find a melt in your mouth crumble like the one here.

The strangest thing, perhaps, was daddy has always been under the impression that I was going for a tea party.



















Me: Daddy, Can you drop me at the Tea Party on our way home? (in the afternoon)
Daddy: Sure.

Me: Daddy, I'm going to the Tea Party tonight after dinner. (9pm)
Daddy: Aren't tea-parties supposed to be in the afternoons? Isn't it a bit late?

HAHA! this coming from him after 4 years of me going to Tea Party!

When I got back in Summer, I found out that I hadn't brought Bia there at all, which really consituted a terrible travesty. So, just before I left, I brought her and Jan (my 爱人) there to try out the delish scones and tea. Needless to say, they were appalled that I kept such a hideaway from them, and we are definitely going to head back there when I get back in Dec.

Food for the soul II : Budapest

Budapest, Hungary, our last stop on our 8-day post exams budget tour, was everything and had everything. Its sights were amazing: Pest especially, with its vibrant culture and where old meets new. What I loved most, was not its food, but the very fact that you'd be on a rather dodgy street one moment and yet with a right turn, end up right in front of an ultra cool, glitzy art gallery opening complete with state of the art sound system playing smooth world music, enveloping the 2-storey open-concept contemporary gallery and separating it from its shoddy surroundings. Its open-aired baths were also an experience not to be missed - from embarrassing moments in the changing room (am definitely not used to that much nudity in one day) to soaking up thermal waters in a pool of retirees wearing their surgical scars showed that in this resort-like public complex, body sizes;age;ugly scars do not matter. Okay, maybe body sizes did matter, but I try to get by through denial.

Having heard a lot about the Central Market in Budapest, I badgered my travel buddies into a trip there. But expectations fell flat. Borough Market, London seemed to trump it at all levels. While I did get to try the Hungarian apple strudel, the huge complex was not so much a food market but rather a vegetable market. :( cool, but nothing different.































Lunch was at Gerloczy Kavehaz, this quaint cafe in the middle of a hidden downtown area. Apart from very reasonable prices, impeccable service, the food was also superb. Which really proves that good food does not always come with a crazy price tag. It was also here that we met fellow (almost) Singaporeans. The 4 expats asked if we were from Singapore (darn the unmistakable accent) and told us happily that 'we're from there too'. Interesting. Okay, back to food. I ordered a set lunch which cost me about 9 quid after conversion - Fried mushrooms in breadcrumbs with rice for starters, and grilled fillet mignon with pork. (dessert was so-so) Cheng had the same starter but opted for spicy sausage and creamy potatoes. Jia and Tan had local specials which all turned out really good.




















































































































On the last day, Jia and I explored Budapest on our own after the boys left for London. Finding our way to the thermal baths, loads of walking and ending the day with a slice of heaven each from Gerbeaud's (i swear we took pictures, but i can't find them now) was great fun and fact that we girls can survive without the boys' map reading skills (Cheng not included).