The Greenhouse

I'm supposed to be on a diet, or at least watch my diet cause I've not done anything about the 5 kg I'm supposed to loose since ... 3 yrs back?

Well, one of my bro decided to buy parents dinner for his birthday and a job promotion. He invited us to tag along but go on dutch. And so we did...

It was my first time at the Greenhouse at the Ritz. And no, it's not in a Greenhouse. Boy, am I blown away by the sumptuous and wide buffet spread, a haven for seafood aficionados. There's fresh scallops, oysters, slipper lobster, shashimi, chilli crab, cold crab, drunken prawn, stir-fry prawn etc just to name a few. There goes my diet...

For dessert, there's creme brulee, nice and warm chocolate souffle that melts in your mouth, assorted chocolate pralines, chocolate mousse cake and variety of other fruits and dessert. I only managed to indulge in half of the buffet spread.

The dinner cost us a pretty penny, but it's all worth it. It's been a few days, and I'm still thinking about the food... so yes, it's that good.

After dropping the folks off after dinner, we decided to take a stroll along Clarke Quay. Well, it's just our feeble attempt to get the food down our digestive system instead of up to our brains ...

Anniversary Dinner

It's our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Dec 26! We celebrated it earlier on Sat night with a nice dinner at ilLido at the Sentosa Golf Club.

Sam made reservation in advance for the alfresco dining. The view from the restaurant was lovely as we could see the ships sailing in the reflection from the moon. The weather was cool as it had drizzled earlier in the day.

The restaurant serves fine italian cuisine. Sam ordered the festive set and we shared the entree consisting of blue swimmer crab salad with avocado, and homemade tagliolini pasta with gooseliver, pears and marsala wine sauce. He had chilean seabass with porcini mushroom for the main, and traditional italian pudding for dessert. I had fettuccine with crab and sicilian pachino tomatoes as the main course. We also had red wine for our drink, but can't remember what it's called!

There were a number of guests at the restaurant. Seems popular despite it being pricey. Anyway, we enjoyed the evening, a nice end to a quiet Sat.

Delicious Chicken Rice

One of our favourite venue for dinner is the Sin Kee Chicken Rice stall at Margaret Drive's Queenstown Food Centre. When we can't decide where to go for a nice dinner, this will usually be on our radar screen.

Our usual order are the well-marinated white chicken and stir-fry caixin with oyster sauce. The chicken meat is tender and succulent. The serving is generous and price is reasonable. We would normally share a plate of rice as we would like to think that it helps reduce our carbo intake. The service is also fast despite the crowd. The stall is located on the 2nd level. Do give the chicken rice a try...

Other then chicken rice, there's also a nice poh piah/kway pie tee stall on the ground floor of the food centre facing the parking lot. The char kway teow stall is supposedly quite famous too, as there's always a long queue when we are there. But we found the char kway teow mediocre and dry. We still prefer the yummy chicken rice.

The Fuss Free BBQ

On Sat, we went ahead with our plan to host a BBQ for the family. I had wanted to call it off after my recent unpleasant encounter, but as usual it went against my nature to harbour ill-feelings or to change what has been planned.

So we spent Friday evening after work grocery-shopping. We had pre-ordered some kuey pie tee from a hawker and BBQ food from a wholesaler, and had asked my bros to picked them up on their way over. Our plan was to have a fuss free BBQ.

The weather was nice as the rain has stopped by mid-day and it was not humid. We laid a small table by the poolside with a disposable table cloth over it. Tealights were placed at strategic location, and we brought along our stereo playing soothing jazz/radio music. We had disposable plates, cups and utensils. The food and drinks were all ready according to plan. We had also bought 2 disposable 'BBQ pit' that consists of special charcoal, wire mesh/grid and aluminium container.

Well, the 'BBQ pit' was a disaster as it took us forever to start the fire which did not last very long and we had to use candle wax to get the fire going. The charcoal burnt out within an hour and we had to make use of the other set of charcoal. We spent a long time BBQing which led bro to suggest that maybe we should just microwave the food! Well, he's also Mr Impatient. And Dad got a little bored after sometime cause we were slow to serve the food, and he was missing his soccer game on tv...

The food was alright, the otah and kuay pie tee were most tasty. We had flan for dessert, specially made by Sam. It was a better 2nd attempt for him, and everyone enjoyed it. It was a long evening but good to be able to spend more time with our nephew whom we rarely get to meet.

We confess, it was a trial BBQ for us so we would know what to expect next time if we were to have another one with 'real' guests. We learnt that it is important to have some cooked food just in case the BBQ fail. And yes, we will definitely buy the conventional charcoal and starter, and not rely on the disposable version. Better still, if someone would bring along their gas grill...

Suppertime

Went out for supper tonight at the Happy Valley HK Cafe at Tiong Bahru. It's open 24 hrs and serves authentic HK food (what else). It is strategically located at a corner of a row of shop houses by the road side visible to all vehicles passing by, which is how we discovered the place.

We have been there a couple of times and the food is interesting if not tasty. But so far the unadventurous me have ordered the same dishes: zhajiang mian and mango pomelo sago dessert. The cafe ambiance does remind me of the HK nightlife. It's worth a try if you have no idea where to go for late-night supper!

Morning Workout with the Folks

This morning, we met some choir folks at 7 am for a workout at the BG. Yes, we woke up earlier than usual just to walk the BG with the folks.

We met at the gate opposite Taman Serasi, and took a leisure walk all the way to the Symphony Stage. There were a few people jogging and some groups doing Taichi. No birds chirping but it was a nice refreshing start to the day... till it started to pour! So after barely half an hour into the walk, we ended up at a make-shift marquee. Fortunately there were chairs around, so the 8 of us sat and chat while waiting for the weather to ease.

Surely I was thinking, how nice it would have been if I was in my cozy bed sleeping with the cool breeze and sound of raindrops in the background. While waiting we had a morning devotion, with Albert sharing a passage from the bible which was meant for his talk with the BB boys later in the morning. As the rain still did not stop after waiting for an hour or so, Sam and Albert decided to walk back to get the car and some brollies for everyone.

Next, we proceeded to Telok Blangah Food Centre for breakfast. It was my first visit to that food centre. We ordered porridge, wanton noodle, dumpling soup, yutiao, carrot cake and pom pom. The food was really delicious. The porridge was smooth and tasty with lots of ingredients and condiments. The wanton noodle was very fine and the prawn in the dumpling tasted fresh. The yutiao was handmade and not oily. Never knew this place existed and will definitely return for the porridge and wanton noodle. Apparently, most of the stalls are closed after lunch and the place is virtually deserted at night.

We parted ways after breakfast. It was another great Sat for us, and another excuse for not quite doing any exercise. :p The folks are planning to conquer the TreeTop walk at Macritchie next Sat. Let's see if it materialise...

Pretzel Pieces

This was first introduced to me by little Sarah when I was in Taiwan. And I got to like the chunks of Sourdough Hard Pretzels especially the honey mustard and toasted onion flavor. It was not available in SG till recently. These Pretzels from Snyders are now found everywhere in supermarkets like Cold Storage. I like it as a healthier (I think) alternative to chips.

Try it! (Hmm, I should get commission doing this...)

TGIF

The weekend is finally here again! I have been looking forward to this day, again! :-)

For dinner today, we decided to try out the Harvest Thai Restnt at ACS (Barker). It is located by the Olympic-sized Shaw pool where we watched the swimmers do their laps while we dine with Christian music in the background. Not crowded. Nice ambiance.

Sam must have been really hungry as he ordered a lot of food. We had olive fried rice, green curry, a veg dish, seafood salad and a Harvest harmony drink. The food is Thai with some local flavour. They are also pretty generous with their servings and we were really stuffed. We will visit again as it is closed to home, free parking and food is reasonably priced. In the day it is opened as 'Cafe Daily Bread' serving snacks and pastries.

After dinner, we headed for CG at the Choos' new residence at Lor Selangat. It's a lovely terrace cluster housing, 4 stories high consisting of 16 units, ample basement parking, an infinity lap pool and a baby pool. When you enter from the car park there's the maid's room, and on the next level is a big living/dining room and the kitchen/laundry area. The 2nd level houses the master bedroom and a study room. On the topmost level are 2 bedrooms, one belonging to Don (decorated all blue), the other to Laetitia (EVERYTHING in there was her choice color - pink). Each level has a balcony and at least a washroom. It's a very lovely and cosy home, with good choice of wall color and furnishing.

This evening, Sam led us in a comparison study on the story of Zacchaeus and the Rich Young Man. We concluded that the Rich Man was unwilling to give up his earthly wealth to inherit eternal life. The self-righteous man despite living a righteous life, has forgotten to obey the very first commandment "Thou shall have no other Gods before me". These other Gods need not be deities but material things or putting of self before God. It is indeed a good reminder for all to remain humble like Zacchaeus and to seek God first.

Bak Kut Teh

We had a very late supper tonight at the popular 'Founder Bak Kut Teh Restnt' at Balestier Rd. We patronise the place quite often and would go there late so as to avoid the dinner time queue.

Our regular orders would be the pepperish spare ribs bkt, tang oh chai (not sure the English name for the veg dish), yu tiao and rice. They usually give a generous refill of the tasty bkt soup so we always go home with our stomach filled with the warm pepperish soup. I hope we wouldn't be needing the washroom too often tonight.

Gathering of Old Friends

After church today, we met up with Min, his wife June, Joyce and little Jun for lunch. It has been some years since we last met Min. He is still pretty much the same, except that he now prefers to read in large prints :p

I came to know Min in 1991 at York. Then, I discovered that he and my bro went to the same school and were classmates. Sam knew Min from MSBC and they were both in the mime team. We had the opportunity to travel together to Florida, whitewater rafting trip to Ottawa and some of the YAM camps.

Min is a very humble, simple and helpful guy. I recall those days in my first year at varsity, when I had to write essays for assignments. At that time, I really have little idea of how to use the computer, let alone MS Word. I only vaguely remember playing computer games on a Commodore via Dos program back home. We didn't have email or MSN back then! So I really struggled to write the essay with my weak command of English and at the same time to learn to use the application. Fortunately for me, Min came to the rescue and spent the whole night teaching me to use the PC and construct my essay in Lillian's rented basement. The essay was due the following day. He pretty much helped pull me through the difficult times and taught me some basic computer skills. Now I have him to thank and have put my technical knowledge into good use and could even design my blog. And he has indeed put his patience and teaching gift to good use too :)

We met for lunch at Botak Jones at TP but I had Japanese instead as I had enough of BJ at the Tuas branch near work. We then adjourned to have dessert at Ben & Jerry's at Dempsey Hill. B&J is a pretty cosy and family friendly place to hang out for dessert. The place was packed but we managed to find a comfortable corner.

It was a wonderful time of catching up, and I am glad to have spent a lazy Sunday afternoon with friends. Thank God for blessing us with good old friends. Thank God also for technology to draw us closer. We could now know how the other person is getting along by reading their blog. How I admire the new generation and what they have been blessed with :)

Penang Food

This evening we decided to have dinner out and wandered our way to Penang Kitchen at Coronation Arcade across from the Shell petrol station. The food was surprisingly delicious though a tad expensive for 'hawker style' menu.

For starter we had the Tue special, lor bak - something akin to ngoh hiang but the stuffing is filled with meaty (as opposed to fatty) pork and the condiment is a sweet brown sauce. For the main, Sam had the Penang char kway teow while I had the assam laksa. The thin and flat kway teow was fried with prawns and eggs the Penang style i.e. without dark sweet sauce. The tasty laksa was made with tamarind for its soup base, and filled with mackerel, lots of he-ko (thick sweet prawn paste), mint, pineapple slices and cut red chilli. It was a little spicy but I still gobbled up the whole bowl. The Penang boy has endorsed its authenticity and I couldn't agree more. For drinks we had ice ginger tea and ice nutmeg with lime juice to help with the digestion.

One thing to note is that there is no service charge or GST. Still, our bill came up to $27. Apart from being a restaurant, they also sell condiments and confectioneries from Penang. They may need to improve on the ambiance though, cause the whole place is painted in bright green! Nevertheless, we enjoyed our meal and will probably revisit soon. Boy, am I stuffed!

Beancurd

After picking Sam up from St Andrew's Cathedral last night, we headed to the 'original' Rochor Beancurd stall near Selegie Road. Surprisingly the shop was very packed despite the late hour and we had much difficulty getting parking.

The rival sibling's beancurd stall was just next door but saw fewer patrons. As for me, I don't think I could differentiate the taste as I am not a food connoisseur. The beancurd we had was smooth and light, the yutiao not too oily but the egg tart a little too heavy. But since it's the more popular of the two shops, we went with the crowd :p

Seafood!

Got to eat a big feast last Thursday with 3 other colleagues and boss. We went to Owen Seafood Restaurant at Turf City for dinner. What's the special occasion? Well, just a dinner treat from those who received big bonus :)

There was just too much to eat, a King crab on top of the set meal. The set meal consists of crab cooked with salted egg, steam druken prawn, bamboo clam topped with lots of garlic, steamed bean curd with vegetable, Ee-fu Noodle, Bamboo Pith soup, man tou (toast bread) and dessert.

We had chosen the smallest King crab available. But the crab is so huge we have asked to cook them in different style, half chilli crab and half with salted egg. King crab has more meat than Alaskan crab. The pincers are gigantic, each is the size of a palm. Of course, the price of the King crab is also different. That crab alone costs $400+ after a 50% discount.

Boss also brought a bottle of white french wine. The wine definitely tastes different with a nice sumptuous meal. Boss also taught us lessons on wine appreciation, and encouraged us to collect red wines that will appreciate in value and taste.

Well, am thankful for the lovely treat. But... all the cholesterol means I have to work it all out!

Prata

On Saturday after running some errands, we went to our regular prata shop 'the Prata Cafe' on Evans Rd. We like its good variety of pratas, thosai and indian dishes at reasonable prices.

For our late afternoon tea, we ordered Milo Godzilla (ice milo drink, topped with lots of thick milo powder and vanilla ice-cream), Teh Halia (hot ginger tea), Indian Rojak (fish cakes, fried prawn fritters, eggs covered with flour which has been deep-fried, all served with special peanut sauce) and plain pratas (with curry sauces and sugar).

The best part about this place are its proximity to home and the 'easy' road-side parking :p

Fine Dining

Last night, we had a nice European-Asian dinner at Ember Restaurant located in boutique Hotel 1929 at Keong Saik Rd. We had to make reservations one day in advance as it is usually full house.

For appetizer, we ordered crispy tofu with mushroom and foie gras sauce, and pan roasted scallops with vegetable. Love the tofu! Our main course were marinated cod with black miso and herbed potatoes, and roasted lambloin with sauteed baby spinach, fleur de sel. I had the cod which was very nicely marinated and pan fried on the outside. Dessert was a warm banana tart with homemade lavender ice cream. The ice-cream was exquisite. It's a MUST TRY!

The price is considered to be reasonable for such fine cuisine. The dinner was delicious and perfect for special occasion :)

Basil Plant

We bought a Basil Plant today from Cold Storage. A check on the web says that Mediterranean and Indochinese cuisines frequently use basil, the former frequently combining it with tomato.

Basil is one of the main ingredients in pesto (a green Italian oil-and-herb sauce). Chinese also use basils in soups and other foods.

Although basil will grow best outdoors, it can be grown indoors in a pot and should be kept away from extremely cold drafts. Let's see how long it will last :)

Alaskan Crab

Had a department dinner on Friday with my colleagues at Ah Yat Hunan Restaurant at Turf City. We had seafood dinner and my colleagues ordered one huge Alaskan Crab costing $500 on top of the set menu. It's so expensive that we have to take pictures of it. We also had Geoduck Clam, another expensive dish.

It was a nice treat which I don't think I will order if on my own...