Road Trip

A road trip around the island, recounted in pictures.
Udders - An ice cream parlour in Goldhill Shopping Centre. Read a review somewhere that recommended the Mao Shan Wang premium ice cream, so of course, we had to trek our way there one Saturday afternoon. In comparion, the D24 was a disappointment after the rich creamy taste of the Mao Shan Wang. The Rum Rum Raisin was not quite to my taste, being a bit too rummy. I still prefer the Rum And Raisin from The Ice Cream Gallery. :)
Dried Chilli Crab from Uncle Leong. For this, we trekked all the way to Ang Mo Kio. The slightly burnt dried chilli gave the crabs a slight tangy taste which was very pleasant. Makes a change from the usual chilli or pepper variety. Definitely worth a rerun!
Not content with the crabs, we headed off to a new joint in Newton, District 10. Surprise surprise! Chef Dean (from our Paella Night) now works at this joint! Didn't taste the cuisine (afterall, we were stuffed to the gills with crabs). Merely had a creme brulee and some drinks before calling it a night.
On a lazy Saturday, I met up with an ex-colleague for lunch, and a tour of her newly rented apartment. Wow! What a view! Tempting, tempting...but way out of my budget, and not within my requirements. Oh well. Always good to have a chance to kaypoh...

Hero Lai Lo!

So, I've been impatiently waiting for my mobile service contract to be up for renewal, so I can get my grubby little paws on a new phone ("I don't care which model! I just want one of them fancy touchscreen things!").

Yesterday, I made a call to the service provider, got myself a handset upgrade voucher, found out that one of the phones I was eyeing was on special promotion "ending today" (*panic*), rushed myself down to the shop (thankfully, located only next to the office), only to have my excitement deflated by the notification that said phone was out of stock. So, like one of those eager birkin bag fans, I optimistically placed myself on the waitlist, and settled down for a long wait.

Surprise surprise! The very next morning, I got a call from the shop, telling me the new stock is in, and I could go down and get my hands on my very own set of the new HTC Hero! Alas, Ah Ho was trying to complete the repairs of my ceiling (a portion of which had threatened to boink me on the head just weeks ago). So I waited very impatiently, trying to rush him through the job (including the additional job of replacing the not-working-very-effectively bathroom tap). After an hour, I threw my hands up in despair and gave him my keys to lock up after himself. I HAVE to get my hands on my new toy!!

Aahhh...satisfaction!



Except, even the geek in me had some problems figuring out how to transfer contacts, message, undo default settings for contact views, etc. This is a tricky little monster! Urgh! And, I was exceedingly frustrated, trying to type on the screen with my fat fingers! Fortunately, Our Friend very cleverly suggested turning the phone to "landscape" position, so that the qwerty keyboard keys would be more spread out, and make easier targets for my fat fingers. Success! Yay!

And while I was already out in town on a Saturday afternoon, I decided we might as well head to one of my favourite shopping haunts to hunt for my latest fashion must-have - trendy necklaces. I've been busy checking out online shops, on occasion, even braving the big bad cyberworld out there to make a few small purchases. On some of these sites, I had spotted some very trendy-looking necklaces (or at least, what *I* would consider trendy now. A few years down the road, I might very well demand to know why my closest friends did not stop me from leaving home with something that hideous looking hanging around my neck...).

I present to you, my friends, my haul from this afternoon!

1 cheapie edge-y ring (the light blue one), and 2 very ostentatious dressy rings which were not all that cheap. But in my own defence, I have to state that they were on 50% discount! Still, they cost about $30 in total. Not too bad.

1 of the 2 "feather" design necklaces I've been searching for.

Couldn't resist choosing the peacock feather design. Besides, it was 2 for the price of $10! So, of course I had to choose 2!

Success!

New baking powder, new flour, and a whole lot less brutal whipping of the batter.

Et voila! Easy-peasy! Steamed banana cake! At least, it's risen! Haha! We'll see whether the taste made all this worthwhile. *waiting impatiently for cake to cool down*

Meanwhile, I've also gotten some green tea powder from the baking shop. Next on the list - Green Tea Steamed Cake!

Nocturnal Adventures

Ever since I had tasted 4th Aunt's yellow wine chicken in KL, I've been making a half-hearted search for a bottle of glutinous rice yellow wine to further my culinary adventures back home. Thus far, I had been most unsuccessful.

Until now.

FINALLY! After much googling and asking around (supermarkets, TCM shops, local grocery shop uncle, chatting to customers in TCM shop), I've managed to get my grubby little hands on a bottle of the above - "Kiukiang Glutinous Rice Chiew"! And where was it hiding all this while? Why, in the bottom shelf of the condiments section in the neighbourhood "Shop n Save", of course...

I've never had much confidence in my culinary skills, and would not usually attempt any western recipes which called for any sort of slightly more exotic ingredient than "dried oregano" or which required more than 2 steps in whipping the whole thing together. But when it comes to chinese recipes, I am somehow filled with less trepidation in exploratory adventures.
So, armed with some recipes from the internet, and my magical bottle of yellow glutinous rice wine, I set off on tonight's effort. Ladies and Germs, I present to you *TADA* - Yellow Rice Wine Chicken, with (copious amounts of) Ginger, Red Dates, Wolfberries, and Shitake Mushrooms (the last ingredient is my own addition, mushrooms being one of my favourite food). Not half bad, if I say so myself! Good enough for me to offer to share some of it. Hehe! Chucked in a good half bottle of the good stuff. Once you're through slurping up all the soupy goodness, I'm sure you'd (be drunk enough to) give me the same compliment for this dish too! HAH!

Alas, the other experiment tonight (Steamed Banana Cake) failed miserably to rise (to the occasion). Our Friend blames it on the flour. This means, of course, that we'll have to scout for fresh new flour, and MORE ripe bananas, to test out the recipe. So off to the baking shop we'll go tomorrow...

To celebrate the start of our long weekend, we trooped down to Shashlik, and feasted on Borsch soup and Chicken Kiev. It was all a quaint experience for Our Friend, but one that evokes warm memories of the place my parents used to bring us to, for a "western treat" of steak on a hotplate. Dim lights, old fashioned slightly grumpy service, and the smell of food lingering in the air. I was particularly amused that the Chicken Kiev was served with a piece of paper decoration resembling a chef's hat on what looked like the chicken's BUTT...! :) That old place is long gone now. But the memory flashbacks I get when I drive past where I guess the old restaurant used to stand along Orchard Road still brings a smile to my face.
Kick-starting the morning (well, it was noon by the time Our Friend deemed it appropriate to roll out of bed on a weekend), I'd planned ahead and shopping for stuff to make our breakfast with. It being the long weekend, a greasy, salty, sinful breakfast of fried bacon is DEFINITELY called for! The only redeeming features are the vegetables (portobello mushrooms and vine-ripened tomatoes) accompanying the greasy bacon (hey, I patted them down with paper towels first, you know!). Aah, satisfaction! And, there's more where THAT came from! :D

Ok, we tried to burn off some of the sinfully greasy becon (and some of the cabin fever) with a brisk walk round the reservoir, before hitting the local supermart for some chicken pieces to attempt this - Chicken with big dates and wine. Tasty! Now, let's see. With the long weekend ahead, what else shall I attempt? Hmm... Where can I get me some yellow wine?? *-)

Meow!

Left to my own devices for another evening, inspiration struck.

Our Friend is no fan of the King of Fruits. Which means, I've been deprived the entire recent durian marathon season...I've been casting longing looks at stalls packed with huge baskets of the fruit, sniffing at the aroma lingering in the air.

In spite of heatiness boiling over within my body, I could not let this opportunity pass! Carpe Diem! With Our Friend otherwise occupied this evening, I merrily acquired a box of the famed Cat Mountain durians to feast on.

The verdict? Disappointing. It's tasty and creamy alright, but a tad too light for my taste. My preference is for the pungent ones, bursting with so much flavour it's almost bitter, melting in your mouth, intoxicating your taste buds and sending your brain sensors into overdrive. With all the hype and rave reviews, I wonder if I've been conned into acquiring poor imposters? Nonetheless, I saved the two remaining seeds from the haul to freeze and to decide on manner of hoovering it in at a later date.

*burp*

Tick Tock

While the minions continue trudging through their lives,

autumn arrives on the Little Red Dot (not the Little "RAD" Dot, mind you...*boomz*).

The sun sets on another day.

x

A Birthday Celebration

It's a long time since we'd gone out to "party", so to speak. But for M's mini birthday celebration before she jetted off to Spain, I wanted to depart from the usual food binge routine and so, did some serious googling in the days before.

We eventually settled on a night out with live acoustic music by the Lovejacks at Timbre @ The Arts House.


For the occasion, we got all decked up, trooped down to the riverside, and shared some pretty decent pub food in the warm and humid, non-air conditioned al fresco atmosphere. I have to say, the hand muddled Mango Mojitos went straight to our heads. It was enough for us to sing and clap along to some pretty lame Oktoberfest games before the band struck up.

But when they did, boy was it worth the effort expended! It's been a long time since I'd sat down to a night of serenading by some very competent musicians with dulcet voices, and this night brought back some very pleasant memories of being very impressed with the talent out there, outside of "Singapore Idol"...

After all that "excitement", we rounded off the night with a late supper of prata, roti john and teh si (the horlicks ice cream apparently doesn't serve late night owls like us). *burp*

Something slightly different, yet not too far from the familiar path of what we've always enjoyed.

Plans are being made...

Hole

*Puts hand up and pleads guilty to neglect*

On the one hand, nothing much has happened.

On the other hand, things HAVE been happening. Just not compelling enough to blog about them. Besides, I blame someone else's apnea problems, causing my feeling constantly too tired and uninspired to blog. :P

After the spate of holiday-ing earlier, it's been a big "thump" back down to earth, scurrying around the workplace. A few friends have since become mothers (some first time, some the second time around). I chucked out a whole bunch of stuff to make space for someone else's stuff. Some old furniture got replaced by some new retro stuff. And a piece of my ceiling came down.

In the middle of the night, after I had already crashed landed on LaLa-Land, there was apparently an almighty crash somewhere abouts The Cave. Our Friend, true to horror movie style, went to investigate the cause with nary a baseball bat to arm himself. Lucky for him no horror lurked around the corner... We found the kitchen cornice, with bits of the ceiling, shattered into many pieces and scattered on the kitchen counter and around the floor.

The next day, I called in trusty Ah Ho to offer his professional opinion on cause and rectification, and was duly informed that various other parts of my ceiling were also on the verge of boinking me on the head soon. Serious expertise to assign blame was called for. So I called in the officials this morning for a thorough investigation (from 6 feet away, with a torch light pointed weakly in the general direction of the raw concrete dent in my ceiling). The official verdict was issued on the spot, informing me that they could help me rectify the problem if I would only go join the thronging crowds at the next Meet-the-People session, and beseech the MP to endorse my request for assistance in fixing my crumbling ceiling. What?? I believe the man failed to understand the issue (don't even get my started!).

I didn't need financial assistance in fixing the ceiling! I need to know who would be responsible for the prevention of my being boinked on the head by a piece of falling concrete!

Official Shirker having issued his verdict, I decided I'd rather have someone I trusted to save me from potential harm. Trusty Ah Ho it is then.

Meanwhile, bits of the kitchen ceiling continues to crumble...