Friday, May 02, 2008
Instead of cooking
I had an inexplicable craving for delivery pizza tonight, so for the first time in over a year, I called Sarpino's and put in an order (with a friend standing by to help with the eating). The best part was that between us, we polished off the two 10" pizzas and side order of chicken wings, so there were no leftovers for the fridge, hurrah!I would've cooked dinner but I've run into plumbing problems again: one of the pipes running from the kitchen sink has sprung a leak. A friend is gonna help seal it up this weekend, but meanwhile I'm avoiding any kitchen activities that would entail washing the dishes with soap. The hardest part is, predictably, not being able to make coffee in the morning.
Labels: Domestically challenged, Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:46 PM
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Strike three, but we got lucky
Because I am a freelancer who is --- for all intents and purposes --- surgically attached to her internet connection, Cowboy Caleb calls me on occasion for last-minute restaurant advice and I spend about five minutes helping him pick a place where he can fête a client or boss on his company's tab. The other typical condition is that it has to be a place that he knows how to get to in Singapore, which can be harder than it sounds.Today he calls at about noon from Hong Kong and needs a place for dinner tonight. He can't expense the meal, but still needs it to be nice enough. Oh, and no Asian food.
We settle on Valentino's, because we've been there before and it's pretty damn good food. He asks me to get a reservation (yes, I am officially his entertainment secretary, didn't you know?) and SMS him when the table's booked. I call. Valentino's, it turns out, is fully booked for the night.
A little SMSing, another phone call. "How about Marmalade Pantry at Palais Renaissance?," I suggest, "because the air-conditioning at the Holland Village one isn't working [as I found out to my dismay on Monday night]."
"Where's Palais Renaissance?"
"Next to Orchard Towers, between Orchard Towers and the Thai embassy."
For reasons that cannot be reported here, Cowboy Caleb declines to go anywhere near Orchard Towers. We settle on Ember at Hotel 1929, another reliable choice that he knows how to get to.
I call and: "We regret to inform you that we will be closed for renovations from 30 April to ..." Cheebye. I hang up without bothering with the rest of the automated message.
"Strike two," I SMS Cowboy.
He calls back. By this point, I'm trawling through The Travelling Hungryboy for ideas. We confer. "Okay, Wild Rocket," he decides.
I call and I cannot believe my ears: "I'm sorry, but we're closed tonight for a private function."
Clearly, the moral of the story at this point is that it is not possible to get a dinner reservation at a decent place on the eve of a public holiday (it's May Day tomorrow), unless you planned your evening a week before and had time to work your way through an entire restaurant directory.
Cowboy cannot believe it; neither can I. James comes to the rescue on MSN: "Cork", he says, "63279169." Does Cowboy know where Capital Towers is? Why yes, he does. After which he SMSes: "I boarding the plane. You decide."
Meanwhile, I'm calling --- and miracle of miracles, they are open, they have tables available and they are pleased as punch to take Cowboy's reservation. I manage to sneak in a last confirmation SMS to Cowboy and the URL for Chubby Hubby's review of the place before he switches off his phone on the plane.
As far as I know, dinner went all right.
It seems Secretaries' Day has just passed us by, so Cowboy owes me a huge bonus next year. He should buy me dinner at a nice place.
Labels: Food for thought, Freelancin' living, Life in the internet age, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 11:50 PM
Sunday, April 27, 2008
I have become a breakfast person
It used to be that I didn't eat breakfast at all, and it was a point of pride for me to declare as much. My mother was a little surprised by this, seeing as she'd faithfully fed me breakfast through most of my growing years, but I'd fallen out of the breakfast habit when I went away to university and didn't quite pick it back up when I moved back to Singapore.
Until now.
I blame it on all the good food easily available around me. Within a 5-10 minute walk from home are an excellent German bakery, a Cedele outlet and, if all that fails, two grocery stores. Within a 10-minute bus ride are a lovely Malay eatery with tip-top epok-epok and shops with various Peranakan kueh options. A 10-minute car ride away is Scruffy Murphy's at East Coast Park, home to the oily English breakfast (the photo above was taken last year; when G-man and I ate there yesterday, the grilled tomato and mash had been replaced by baked beans).
So eating breakfast has become quite a delightful way to start out the day, despite the fact that it's usually eaten while I'm doing work, and now I often find myself wondering, "Hm ... what else can I eat for breakfast tomorrow?"
Clearly, I need to start cooking my own breakfasts, especially on the weekends. I haven't made French toast in months, and after having a passable croque madame for lunch today (disguised on The Caffebar's menu as "ham and cheese sandwich with egg"), I'd like to try making that too. I also need to replicate the scrambled eggs with smoked salmon that James had earlier this week.
Breakfast today consisted of two epok-epok and two slightly overripe bananas. Breakfast tomorrow will be an orange cranberry muffin from Cedele. After that --- who knows?
Labels: Food for thought, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 11:17 PM
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Lana virgin
Yesterday, the best friend and I went to visit Ondine and the twins, and my mom was there too to help with the kidlets, so it was clearly an occasion that called for a Lana cake. 1.5 kg of it, in fact, a good hunk of which is still sitting in my fridge (yes, the sacrilege, but I couldn't eat it all in one day).But that's not what I'm here to tell you about. No, no --- this is the story of the Lana virgin.
It seems that Lana Cakes, along with any number of other good cake stores, were featured in a recent newspaper article about the best cakes in Singapore. That's the only explanation why a woman ahead of me in the queue (who looked about my age, standing there patiently with her mother and her child) asked the counter staff very matter-of-factly, "Excuse me, do you have a brochure?"
A brochure? In my head, I was thinking, "What kind of place do you think this is --- a normal bakery? This is Lana. They don't have brochures. You come in, you get your cake, you go, that's it."
The counter staff was nicer. "No, I'm sorry, we don't have any brochure. We just have a few kinds of cake, or when you call and order, we can tell you."
"Ohhh ..." The woman seemed mystified, but conferred politely with her mother. Meanwhile, the counter staff went to retrieve my dutifully pre-ordered cake. By the time she had shown it to me and done it up in the trademark white box with a purple ribbon and was sliding it into an equally purple plastic bag, the woman had decided she wanted a 1-kg cake and asked for a slip of paper to write down the birthday message she wanted icing'ed on it.
The best friend and I walked out of the shop, shaking our heads. A brochure from Lana? We didn't cluck our tongues like old biddies, but I know I wanted to.
Related posts: Lana cake for lunch, I am a Hobbit
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Lana cake
Labels: Food for thought, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 8:18 PM
Sunday, March 09, 2008
A Saturday's adventures
For all that I rail about crowds on a regular day, I don't mind occasionally plunging myself into the thick of one when I don't have any particular objective in mind. Evidence, to wit: the Great Chinatown Walkabout of several years ago, which was followed by the Great Hari Raya Puasa Walkabout, Comex last September, and more recently the Singapore Air Show last month.Yesterday's challenge: the Singapore IT Show.
Part of me wanted to buy a terrabyte hard drive just so that I can say I have one --- but my 200 GB backup drive isn't even half full at the moment, so who am I kidding here? Nonetheless, my brain is still sufficiently new to the concept of a terrabyte that I kept referring to it as a "one-tetrabyte" drive. To which my friend enquired, "Is that like ---" beat "--- tetra pak?"
After a couple of hours in the crowd, it was time to get out of Suntec altogether.
At Food for Thought, I really like the brownies (Aunty Rubiah's, according to their website), but I can never finish one on my own. So I only order it if there's someone to eat the rest.
Fortified with caffeine and sugar, I was off to a hen night at Oohtique!.
At which I think I drank more than anyone else except the bride-to-be. It was only four drinks, but enough to earn me the following Truth or Dare question: What was your worst drunk experience?
(Tangent (TM Stellou): On a sort of related note, I once remarked that I have a couple of drinks, three or four times a week --- to which a medical professional at the table said, "You realise that's about the healthy limit, right?" Surely his maths is wrong?)
The story of my worst drunk experience, like the full details of what transpired last night, will stay only with those who were there to share it. Suffice to say that last night's activities ended around 1 am at Geylang Lorong 12, where a totally illegal pushcart vendor sells kick-ass carrot cake (chai tow kway).
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Singapore IT Show, Food for Thought, hen night
Labels: Food for thought, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 1:14 PM
Thursday, March 06, 2008
An unexpected taste
It's extremely disorienting when the pork chops from a Western food stall at a hawker centre taste like Twisties (chicken flavour).Fortunately, it wasn't my dinner.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, pork chops, Twisties
Labels: Food for thought, Singapore stories, Twitteresque
posted by Tym at 11:45 PM
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The teh si that failed
Last night, Suzie and I were wandering Chinatown, looking for a breezy spot to enjoy a little night air and maybe some teh si (tea with evaporated milk). There were no availably breezy spots at Maxwell Hawker Centre, while there were no hot beverages to be had along Smith Street. So we deposited ourselves at the well-touristed corner of Trengganu and Pagoda Streets.On hindsight, I should've known better. This is the yellow-chaired coffeeshop that is always full of tourists. But then, we just wanted a simple teh si --- we weren't asking them to whip up a mean char kway teow or anything.
First, the guy who makes the drinks wasn't available. When he got back, he brought us one drink instead of two. While he toddled off very good-naturedly to make us the second one, I had a sip of the first, which was suspiciously pale. Yuck --- far too much milk and water, hardly any tea. I went back to the counter to ask the guy to add more tea to the cup. Maybe he heard me wrongly, but he added a dollop of sugar instead. While I flailed my hands trying to explain my request, he said he would just make me a new one.
A couple of minutes later, we had two glasses of tea, as pale as the first had been, and were out two bucks for it. Sipping the tea gingerly confirmed that it was, again, mostly milk and water --- in fact, mostly water. I didn't bother to drink mine; Suzie persevered through most of hers.
Clearly, the worst teh si in all of Singapore, and given that every other drink stall here makes it, that's saying a lot. I had a merely mediocre one at lunch today, but after last night's experience, it didn't seem so bad.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, teh si
Labels: Food for thought, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 10:39 PM
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
I survived Chinese New Year Eve shopping
Hitting Parkway Parade on the eve of Chinese New Year may not seem like a smart thing to do, but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have a kati of bak kwa and a jar of prawn rolls to keep the love letters company in the kitchen. Also, I wouldn't have serendipitously run into first bee, then Olorin and had the chance to catch up with the latter over coffee --- during which we bumped into another ex-colleague. Olorin actually had three hits altogether, so clearly his Eastie karma is stronger than mine.
The queues weren't too bad, either. At Bee Cheng Hiang, I was about the fifth in line, but everyone was telling me how ridiculously long it was when they passed the shop. At Cold Storage, I managed to get through the checkout counter in about fifteen minutes.
So I count myself lucky, and now I'm gonna go eat some bak kwa before reunion dinner no. 2, where steak and salad awaits.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 5:57 PM
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
I did not know that yesterday
Blog post title taken from the eponymous blog, which I read from time to time.Last night, I left the Discovery Travel & Living channel on for white noise, which threw up a World Café: Asia episode on Singapore. Presenter Bobby Chinn went through the usual hawker favourites, then ended up on Pulau Ubin where an Indian woman cooked him nasi kerabu --- described on the show as a dish once common in Singapore that's all but forgotten now.
To which I say: nasi what? Turns out it's a synonym for nasi ulam, which I think I've seen listed at Malay food stalls before, though I've not tried it. Google actually turns up more entries related to the Kelantan variety, where the rice is apparently tinted a bright blue colour. Don't think I've seen that in Singapore.
Then today, while IMing with Suzie, she expressed a craving for kuih rose. To which I pretty much responded again with: kuih what? Once more Google threw up images of food I didn't recognise, though Suzie's well-acquainted with the snack. How did I miss this while growing up here?
All of which points to the fact that while we rave about how much great food we have in Singapore, there is always something else lurking in the next stall or shop that we haven't tasted yet.
Technorati Tags: Singapore food, nasi kerabu, kuih rose
Labels: Food for thought, Life in the internet age, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 11:58 PM
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Recent happy food discoveries
I haven't been invited to any Xmas parties (yes, I confess, I'm a little distressed about that), but there's been a great deal of dinners out with friends to make up for it. Which has led to some rather delightful discoveries on the local food scene.
Bella Pizza at Riverside View is so new that Googling it will come up with nothing except blogger Ermita's review (sounds like she was there the night before I was). The pizzas are fabulous, the fettucine carbonara was the best I've ever had in Singapore, and I'm glad Olorin and I went for the Nutella banana crepe for dessert, because man, did that hit the spot.
I don't usually eat fancypants breakfast during the workweek, but I was starving when I got to TCC for a meeting on Wednesday and all they had were elaborate repasts that must've taken at least 20 minutes to assemble on the plate. No such thing as a simple bagel or muffin on their menu.
Surprisingly (because TCC is a coffee chain not exactly known for its culinary finesse), the food looked as good as it had in the menu and then tasted as good too. For a start, the "on the vine tomatoes" were really served on the vine and were nice and corpulent. I'm going to remember the combination of scrambled eggs, sliced parmesan and smoked salmon when I want to make myself a good breakfast at home.
Tonight, Casey and I went to 25 Degree Celsius, which I've been meaning to check out since w wrote about it last month. Not only was it refreshingly uncrowded (though the packed MRT trains on the way to town damn near did me in), the service was delightful and the food was great: duck confit so tender one barely needs a knife, flavourful un-fishy barramundi fillet and a rice cake whose ingredients we couldn't identify but which we loved.
Plus they sell books! Cookbooks!Books about food! Plenty to browse and salivate over. I'm definitely coming back.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Bella Pizza, TCC, 25 Degree Celsius
Labels: Books books books, Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:48 PM
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
It's not really Xmas till ...
I have fresh cupcakes from Baked Ideas in the house.
There were four boxes of them, but most are going away as gifts.
The cat, of course, immediately decided as I unwrapped this box for myself, that the pink ribbon was his new toy.
Technorati Tags: Baked Ideas, cupcakes, Ink the cat, Xmas, Christmas
Labels: Food for thought, Kitty corner
posted by Tym at 7:59 AM
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Now why didn't I think of that?
So there are these two female architects in New York who make it a point of a) having lunch out of the office, b) documenting it religiously. Hence: LUNCH with Front Studio, which even has a handy-dandy map of all the places in their neighbourhood where they eat. They also keep track of their daily 4 pm espresso break snacks.Saith the ladies:
We believe leaving the office everyday for lunch is an invaluable ritual. In a time and city where people are constantly rushing around, trying to accomplish three tasks at once, taking a moment to have a civilized meal becomes even more vital. Eating at your desk while reading emails, surfing the world wide web, snarfing down a bland turkey sandwich from the deli down the street is NOT lunch.Amen, sisters. If I had a dollar for every time I've said that to myself, or tried to entice an overworked associate out to lunch with that logic ...
As karma would have it, today might be a day when I skip lunch because I have meetings that run 11:30 am - 1:30 pm, followed by many urgent errands thereafter. Poo.
(Via Popgadget.)
Technorati Tags: lunch, LUNCH with front studio, lunch who lunch
Labels: Food for thought, Life in the internet age
posted by Tym at 8:03 AM
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
A sole comparison
The last piece of lemon sole I had before last night was as delightfully light as its name suggests, served on a white plate with some sparse vegetables. It was at Le Chien Qui Fume, a seafood restaurant off Les Halles in Paris that my cousin brought us to for dinner, after a day at Versailles. She had a splendid platter of fresh seafood that she happily plucked off its mountain of ice, and later we shared a sublime sabayon, the first I'd ever sampled and what she assured me was a very good specimen thereof.
Last night's lemon sole was a whole different matter. At Big Fish, the friend whose birthday it was wanted oysters and rainbow trout, then there was seafood chowder too, and I thought the lemon sole would be a nice light wrap-up to my meal. But how wrong I was because at Big Fish, they give you the whole lemon sole, slathered in a sauce that my tastebuds are too feeble to identify other than that it was tomato-based.
Needless to say, I couldn't eat dessert afterwards.
Technorati Tags: lemon sole, seafood, Le Chien Qui Fume, Paris, Big Fish Seafood Grill, Singapore,
Labels: Food for thought, Travel babble
posted by Tym at 10:30 AM
Sunday, November 25, 2007
A slow Sunday
cour marly asked why there were no pictures on my previous cooking-related post, and I think this one proves why: I may be getting the hang of very basic cooking, but I am not getting the hang of making my meals look like anything anyone else might want to eat. Nevertheless: very tasty bacon and eggs, prefaced with a Cedele muffin.
Bacon is such a no-brainer to cook and not too expensive in the supermarket either, I fear I might be headed for more bacon in my diet than is healthy. For instance, I'm having bacon for dinner again tonight.
Today was one of those ridiculously sweltering afternoons where the stickiness of the air makes it impossible to concentrate on anything more cerebral than cutting-and-pasting or pressing "play" on the DVD player. Even the cat was cranky and whiny. Sitting in front of the fan helps (I was resisting the urge to switch on the air-conditioning), but I'm just glad my throat's recovered quickly enough from the last few days' wonkiness that I could go back to iced drinks again.
Technorati Tags: bacon, hot weather
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 6:16 PM
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Occasionally, I can cook
Nigella's How To Eat taught me how to marinate and pan-fry chicken breast. bowb taught me how to saute mushrooms to perfection (a lot of butter and garlic is involved). I took a risk by tossing some cherry tomatoes into the mix. Less risk was involved with the final sprinkling of oregano and parsley and salt.And then there was dinner.
Technorati Tags: cooking
Labels: Domestically challenged, Food for thought
posted by Tym at 8:45 PM
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
On the go
Since 3:30 pm, I have consumed two black coffees, one iced tea (unsweetened) and one ice Milo (very much sweetened and loaded with Milo powder). This is what happens when one is roving between meetings and killing time slash clearing email at any wireless-friendly cafe in town.I'm also peckish and dinner's not for another hour, so I'm now adding several mouthfuls of kaya toast to the mix. I'm sure I'll start feeling ill any minute now ...
Labels: Food for thought, Freelancin' living
posted by Tym at 6:29 PM
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Dreaming of pancakes
Leafing through Nigella Lawson's How To Eat before sleeping leaves one dreaming of fresh pancakes and robust syrup from Australia.I don't know if Australia makes remarkable syrup. Maybe my brain got confused and meant to say New Hampshire. As in,
LEO: It's a breakfast, Toby, it's a pancake breakfast. There's nothing in that memo that's important.I'm nowhere near ready to start whipping up my own pancake batter yet, so it'll be cereal and bananas, with no syrup of any kind, later this morning.
BARTLET: We're having Vermont maple syrup?
TOBY: Mr President, if you read item 4 you'll see that time at this breakfast will be spent discussing calling the Patient's Bill of Rights the Comprehensive Access and Responsibility Act.
BARTLET: I don't give a damn if they call it the Monroe doctrine. What the hell are we doing serving Vermont maple syrup? [a few lines later ...] New Hampshire syrup is what we serve in this White House.--- "The Leadership Breakfast", The West Wing
Technorati Tags: pancakes, Nigella Lawson
Labels: Domestically challenged, Food for thought
posted by Tym at 8:06 AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
The appetite strikes back
The thing about having a stomach ailment is that it makes you want to eat everything in sight, especially everything you're not supposed to be eating.Like all the cheese at Cold Storage: Brie, Emmenthal, Gouda, Gruyère and Havarti. I also have Gouda in my fridge that I probably shouldn't try to eat till next week, but that didn't stop me from stopping by a bakery to see if they had any good bread that might go with it (they didn't).
The other thing I probably won't touch till next week is the Honey Bunches of Oats cereal that I bought last week when I had a craving. It doesn't taste the same without milk.
At Cold Storage today, I settled for minced beef, mushrooms and a tomato-based pasta sauce; chicken, asparagus and a basil pesto sauce; bananas, TimTams and a pack of frozen char siew baos. I am not planning to eat the last three items in conjunction with each other.
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 10:28 PM
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A hodge-podge of stories
I've been meaning to blog for the past four days at least, but whenever I've sat down with this blank Blogger screen in front of me, nothing's come to mind.
I mean, there was the story about the mango. My friend and I were walking along Upper East Coast Road when a) two bats dived out of the tree just in front of us, b) I spotted a huge mango on the road just beside the curb. "A mango!" I squeaked. My friend was nonplussed, although he stopped to look down at it. "Get it!" I squeaked." But then a taxi was coming down the road. "It'll squash the mango --- " "No, it won't. Get it!" And then we had a mango. It's in my friend's fridge, last I heard, so I can't report on how it tastes (you see why this makes a weak story?). I'm still amazed that it fell off the tree just as we were walking by --- thank you, fruit bats!
Then there's the story about wandering through a corner of Chinatown with Wahj on a too-hot Saturday afternoon, during which I introduced him to Global Sounds World Music Cafe, while interjecting every now and then about the Japanese prostitutes that used to inhabit Spring Street and the "death houses" (where the destitute went to die) that used to run down Sago Lane. That's what comes of spending a week reading about the seedy underbelly of 19th-century Singapore. Wahj said I should start running walking tours, but this being Singapore, one needs a pesky government licence for that, plus it's too hot to be walking around that much.
What other stories have I got for you? My uncle had quite a few when we all had dinner over the weekend. He'd just come in from Canada, but from the stories he told, you'd think he'd just returned from a round-the-world expedition. The best story was about taking a public bus between towns in Turkey --- only to have armed policemen muscle aboard with a handcuffed man that they were transporting to prison. Those were the days, I guess ...
Today's sad tale could be of how I had (as usual) too much work and had to (as usual) work after dinner. But instead, let's talk about coriander pesto and how it's totally different from basil pesto, which means that my pasta dinner didn't taste exactly as I'd expected (though it still tasted alright). Coriander always makes me expect a curry flavour. Guess I'll have to go look up a different recipe now ...
Technorati Tags: random
Labels: Domestically challenged, Food for thought, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 11:09 PM
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
On foot in Paris and London
"How are you going to blog about all this?" Stellou wondered towards the end of my vacation. Good question. She's done a better job of it so far than I have, with her accounts of my close(ish) encounter with the mouse, our visit to the Imperial War Museum (if not for working on the Army Museum of Singapore, I admit that I wouldn't know of the Imperial's existence), our practically nonstop chitter-chatter, and my last couple of days in London.Across the Channel, my cousin records only the night of gay karaoke --- during which I did not sing, so you could rightly argue that I didn't earn even a mention in that blog entry.
How to blog this then, sixteen days spent six, then seven timezones away, listening to everyone whine about how they didn't get a real summer while I merrily danced between my choices of two jackets (one brown leather, one black cotton), four pairs of shoes (oh, alright, I only wore two most of the time) and countless combinations of sweater-over-long-sleeved-T-shirt. Some afternoons were warm enough to make me wish I'd snuck a tank-top along as well, and in London, Stellou was happy to loan me a pink-and-white striped one.
But I landed in Paris first, where I tried not to be the dork that describes everything as looking like a movie set, but sometimes it seemed that no matter down which little street I turned, there it was, a pretty movie set waiting for me to walk on. Must be nice, to live in a city where most buildings seem to be older than one's grandparents, if not their grandparents, and where so many neighbourhoods average at a comforting 4-5 storeys high. Plus there seemed to be a patisserie on every street corner (my daily walk to the Metro station took me past three, at least) and a balcony outside every window. How much more charming could it get?
It was my first time in Paris, so I dutifully hit all the tourist stops: the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, Versailles, Sacré Coeur, Moulin Rouge, Champs-Elysées, Arc de Triomphe --- plus the final jackpot of three museums on my last day: Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou and Musée Carnavalet. Not that this means I spent any time queuing up to climb to the top of the Eiffel or the Arc de Triomphe. More like, I passed by and checked out the tourist spectacle as spectacle in itself, then maundered off to see some art or have a coffee.
So I also saw the Musée d'Art Modérne, which cousin Nardac says no one ever goes to --- and indeed there were not more than ten people there (excluding the security people) when I visited. Nardac's Dacnar took us on his personalised tour of the Père Lachaise cemetery, where we saw the greatest hits like Jim Morrison and Frédéric Chopin and Abelard and Heloise. But we had to give Oscar Wilde a miss because the cemetery was closing and an eagle-eyed security guard on a scooter was trailing us to make sure we really left the place.
Even in as tourist-infested a location as Versailles, Nardac and I blithely walked through a doorway that happened to be open and found ourselves this:
See what I mean about feeling like I was on a movie set?
Actually, the word that kept popping into my head as I flitted about Paris was "stupendous". My aunt, with whom I was travelling then, had used it to describe Notre Dame on our first day, and the word kept recurring whenever I saw something amazing. The Louvre --- stupendous. Musée d'Orsay --- stupendous. Versailles --- stupendous. The gardens of Versailles --- even more stupendous.
And the art ... You'd think I'd have been all art-ed out after the Louvre on the second day, but no, the secret, you see, is everything in moderation. A couple hours of one kind of art, then a break for tea or the toilet or to take photos of tourists, looking at art.
And then more of the art itself. Géricault, whom I'd forgotten I liked, and David, whom I'd never really looked at before, and old favourites Matisse and Picasso and new possibilities Robert Delaunay and countless others I've forgotten. Art I loved and art I didn't understand, and art I stumbled upon in the park at Le Jardin du Luxembourg.
And not just in Paris, but in London too: in Sir John Soane's and the Tate Modern and the British Museum and the V&A. We didn't make it to the Design Museum , although Stellou assured me --- as she did repeatedly with many museums, she's the museum cafe queen, that one --- that "it has a very nice cafe". I think I understood even less of the Tate than I did of the Pompidou, so we stepped out for a breather onto the little balcony on the third? fourth? level. Millennium Bridge looked great, but what was up with the clangingly modern piece of music being performed there?
At least in London the museums were mercifully free, although Naomi Klein wanted to charge me £12 to attend her book launch (pish-posh, is what I believe Mary Poppins would say to that). But what really got my goat is that Macbeth opened three days after I left with Patrick Stewart in the lead. Also, that by the time we discovered during London Open House what a great little theatre the Almeida is, there were no more tickets available for its shows (with Stockard Channing in the lead!) during the remaining days I was in town.
Patrick Stewart! As Macbeth!
I didn't see any Shakespeare this trip, because none of the plays at the Globe were particularly appealing to me. In fact, I didn't see any shows at all unless you count a BAFTA screening of Hula Girls or an Institute of Contemporary Art screening of Helvetica (both were priceless in their own ways). Instead, I burrowed my way through parks and markets: Hyde Park and the neverending Richmond Park in Kingston, Borough Market for cheese and pies and UpMarket for "bohemian/indie" wares.
Since I got back, people have been asking me which city I preferred and I don't know that one can make a choice. Paris was fresh and new (my first time there), the French (people and language) were not as fearsome as some anecdotes had led me to believe, and by the end of my week there, I was thinking that if I had a reason to hang out in the city long enough to get my French up to scratch, that wouldn't be such a bad thing.
London was a grey and grimy second city, but I got to stay with Stellou and Olive, and Stellou and I got to hang out and giggle a lot like we haven't done since we were in university together. How does one weigh the relative appeal of a fresh pain au chocolat from the corner patisserie with that of a fresh pot of homebrewed coffee and all sorts of breakfasty marvels (Cantal cheese, fresh walnut bread from the corner bakery, fig jam or blackcurrant yoghurt) coming out of the kitchen where one can comfortably sit with one leg up on the chair?
I remember the first time I met Olive in Singapore, I asked him how he was enjoying hanging out with Stellou and her sister, to which he responded, "You never know where you'll end up, but there will always be something tasty there." Which is true, because with Stellou and Olive in charge, there was gastro-pubbing at The Charles Lamb, okonomiyaki in Covent Garden (we were keeping in the spirit after seeing Hula Girls), Pieministers from Borough Market, the brunch spread at Otto Lenghi, and finally French food in The Fox Reformed. Sure, Canteen did disappoint, but it was more than compensated for by the home-cooked paella and beef compote that Stellou and Olive respectively whipped up (despite their misbehaving oven).
With all this on the menu, it should come as no surprise that I did not once taste either shepherd's pie or fish'n'chips during my visit.
Yet London's offerings paled in comparison to Paris's, about which I'm certain countless cultural treatises and newspaper commentaries have been written. I will only add that under Nardac's confident tutelage, we had very lovely seafood at Le Chien Qui Fume (the one near Les Halles), Bistro Chantefable off Gambetta and her favourite restaurant somewhere in Belleville. Plus I OD'd on freshly made chocolate eclairs and pain du chocolat almost every day. Good thing I only discovered Nutella crepes towards the end of the trip.
On one of our first days in Paris, Nardac mentioned offhandedly that we should let ourselves get lost in Paris, since even the natives do. I didn't --- deliberately, because I didn't want to have to ask for directions in my mangled French --- but there were times between museums when I wasn't so much following street signs as loosely heading in the general direction that I oughta be.
London actually proved to be more of a challenge in this regard, maybe because I rarely had a map with me when I was on my own. Somewhere after heading south from Oxford Street for Piccadilly Circus, I ended up on the Strand, then near Trafalgar Square instead and it was only the providential appearance of a mounted tourist map that saved me from circling the streets endlessly (sure, I could've asked for directions, but where would've been the fun in that?). Then there was the time I came out of the British Museum and again needed to mosey south to Piccadilly Circus --- except that I wound up going north by mistake and had to get my bearings by navigating by the setting sun. Who needs a map when one has heavenly bodies on your side?
I guess I didn't quite get lost enough, because at the end of the day, I still had to make my way home.
Technorati Tags: London, Paris, travel, travelogue
Labels: Food for thought, Travel babble
posted by Tym at 11:57 PM
Sunday, September 02, 2007
A birthday party, senior citizen-style
My grandfather rang in his 90th birthday last night with a chocolate cake from an HDB bakery, a short speech and toast by his eldest great-grandchild, and the flashbulbs of a dozen digital cameras of varying vintage. There was also the requisite nine-course Chinese dinner, and the presence of almost every family member who isn't living overseas, as well as his closest church mates.
This was the first Chinese dinner I attended that involved, technically, three servings of dessert. First, the Portuguese egg tarts (ho-hum). Then the ah bo ling (yum-yum). Then the birthday cake.
The most surreal moment: when Gong Gong's sitting behind his birthday cake with one great-grandchild perched on his lap and another ten or so huddled around him for the picture --- and in my mind's eye, I'm seeing a yellowed photograph from the late 1970s, when he was similarly surrounded by my cousins and me, with Packrat (now a daddy himself) in Gong Gong's arms. The quintessential composition of the picture hasn't changed, nor have the expressions of the children, nor has the aesthetic of the cake. It's just my grandfather who's somewhat older and more distinguished-looking.
Though I suppose the kids are also dressed a lot more hip than we used to be.
Related post: A little birthday fuss
Technorati Tags: Singapore, birthday, grandfather
Labels: Food for thought, Personal
posted by Tym at 1:47 PM
Monday, August 27, 2007
Eating away
So I actually am down to the one week before I leave again (no more miscounting!) and it's become a matter not so much of too many things to do, but too many appointments to keep. I'm scheduled up the wazoo and I have to keep reminding myself to eat more Asian food (also to save money).
Which explains, perhaps, why Saturday night's midnight snack was the extremely surprising combination of muruku and Men's Pocky. I assure you that the latter is a real brand that's been around for several years. I remember when kk and I first stumbled across it in some Singapore grocery store and proceeded to giggle for quite some time at the implications. (It's normal-sized Pocky biscuit sticks covered in dark chocolate.) It has now penetrated (ha ha) even my humble neighbourhood provision shop, so it's hardly an expat item anymore.
The muruku came from equally humble origins: a Mustafa shopping trip with the family last weekend. I've got a second pack that I ought to finish before I leave.
Technorati Tags: Men's Pocky, muruku, snack
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:44 PM
Friday, August 24, 2007
Friday night footnotes
Amoy Street hawker centre has the best wanton mee in Singapore, on account of a $3 portion being served with a heap of char siew, a nice portion of stewed mushrooms and green vegetables, and a bowl of six (six!) wantons. Plus the noodles are mildly oily, just enough to keep the dish smooth, without being annoying so.Stomach sated, I headed over to BooksActually for the Shikisai: A T-shirt Exhibition launch. Once again, I managed to walk out of there without buying any books --- which is good for me, but nosso much for the bookstore. I will atone the next time (third time lucky!).
I'm enforcing a no-laptop weekend on myself, so I'll see ya all on Monday.
Technorati Tags: wanton mee, Shikisai, BooksActually
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:43 PM
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Give the people beef, said the Communist paté
We had a lot of beef, but we didn't get around to any banh mi with paté, mostly because every time we walked past a banh mi stall, the sight of the hefty baguettes made me think I wouldn't make it beyond two bites before I declared myself full.But we had pho everyday, from street stalls and airconditioned eateries (Pho 2000's broth and menu is superior to Pho 24's, which must be why Clinton dined at the former back when he was still POTUS) --- with beef slices, beef balls or other cow parts which aren't on the average foreign traveller's diet, and, one time, pho with a baguette on the side. After one mouthful of soup-soaked bread, the only thing either of us could say was: "Now why the hell didn't anyone think of that before?"
I swear the pho in Vietnam tastes better simply because all the ingredients are locally grown, which means they not only taste fresher but also taste of, well, Vietnam. No Australian beef, no imported leaves and the soup's probably been brewed in the same scraped-up pot they've been cooking in for the last ten years. Don't look too closely at the pot or the dishwashing area --- it might put you off your meal. Just concentrate on the bowl of hot soup in front of you, never mind that the same shop's separate translated menu gave pho tai chin and pho chin vien the same description in English, all the iffiness has been scalded away anyway.
In between overdosing on pho, we traipsed up and down the streets of Saigon (meaning District 1, not some fond pseudo-American affectation): pondering narrow buildings and indecipherable shop signs, waving off offers of motorcycle or cyclo rides, sidestepping the inevitable puddles in the streets or cracked sidewalks (it rained everyday we were there), gawking at expert capteh players or neighbourhood aerobics classes in the park.
Ho Chi Minh City was not as crowded, nor as grating, nor as smelly as I'd been led to imagine. People were generally friendly, and most people who tried to sell us something backed off quietly when we declined with a smile and a shake of the head. Shopkeepers tried to get the best price outta us, of course, but we never paid more than we wanted to for anything. It was generally the young guys who were easy to bargain down, not the cheerful but adamant aunties. Flinty they could be, and completed uninclined to coddle our rudimentary bargaining attempts.
When we wanted a break from the street scene, we hunted down some of Travelfish's top 10 Saigon cafes. Creperie & Cafe was the perfect antidote to a waterlogged afternoon in serious propaganda-filled museums. La Fenetre Soleil, though tucked away in a splendid second-floor space, offered plenty of people-watching opportunities.
Other times, it was back to our daily diet of cafe sua da (iced Vietnamese coffee with copious dollops of condensed milk); I probably consumed an entire month's worth of sugar in my four days.
Museums, sightseeing and urban rambles aside, we decided towards the end that what we really liked to do was to park ourselves streetside on the edge of backpacker district Pham Ngu Lao and watch the people stream by. Locals on bikes, of course, but also foreign tourists of both the amiable and the sketchy sort, or child street performers with fire-breathing or shoe-shining talents. Not to mention what seemed to be the nightly ten-minute blackout that would prompt the crowd's cheer (jeer?), as the only light left came from the individually-powered food stalls.
One last bowl of pho, one last T-shirt stuffed into an over-full backpack --- and then we flew home.
Technorati Tags: Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, Vietnam, travel
Labels: Food for thought, Travel babble
posted by Tym at 6:40 PM
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Friday night tea time
It's not a good sign when I'm standing in a 7-Eleven store complaining about their paltry yet baffling selection of Lipton teas, and the friend I'm with says, "You're going to blog about this later, right?"Which I wasn't going to --- honest! --- but since it's apparently expected of me, here it is.
I wanted some good ol'-fashioned Lipton Yellow Label tea --- you know, what used to be the default tea option when I was growing up, before I knew what Earl Grey was, and well before Celestial Seasonings and its ilk of infusion confusions came along to clutter up our shelves.
7-Eleven was the only place still open that might have tea for sale. Except that the first 7-Eleven store I walked into had exactly three varieties of Lipton: Red Tea, White Tea and Gold Tea. No humble Yellow Label options in sight, and the descriptions of the Red/White/Gold Tea consisted of sufficiently purple prose that I immediately replaced the boxes on the shelves.
The next 7-Eleven store, mercifully, had many boxes of Yellow Label tea, but also the Red and White varieties. (Neither store had any non-Lipton teas for sale.) Now that the Yellow Label was safely within reach, I took a few moments to peruse the Red and White Tea descriptions a little more closely. Red Tea promised a spicy flavour (I almost fell for it), White Tea hailed from Kenya, which made me think of a rich coffee-like flavour because of the Rift Valley blend coffee I'd had at Starbucks this morning.
Then the friend helpfully pointed out that the Red and White Teas were $4.60 a pack, while the Yellow Label was $2.45.
Half an hour later, I had my Yellow Label tea in a Starbucks mug. It tasted just like it used to.
Technorati Tags: Lipton, tea, 7-Eleven
Labels: Food for thought, Life in the internet age
posted by Tym at 1:34 AM
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Fast food frustration
Sometimes I eat at MOS Burger, and then I wish I'd taken a few steps more and eaten at Burger King instead.Labels: Food for thought, Twitteresque
posted by Tym at 7:54 PM
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Zen, sun, moon
When feeling stressed about the amount of work accumulating due to laptop intransigence, immediately proceed for relaxing dinner and good conversation over satisfying Japanese food.
We sat up at the sushi counter because those were the only indoor seats that were available. Fortunately, this was not one of those restaurants that compels its staff to greet all entering guests with a rousing "Irasshaimase!" when they enter. The sushi chefs were busy but discreet, and my sushi was served, oddly enough, by a waitress rather than handed over the counter by one of the chefs.
Dinner and four cups of tea later, I was ready to face the world again. Or rather, my work. Poo.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Sun With Moon Cafe
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 1:57 AM
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Flavours
I had two kiwifruit after lunch and now I can't wash the tang out of my mouth.Oh wait, a mouthful of fresh black coffee just did the trick.
Labels: Food for thought, Twitteresque
posted by Tym at 3:05 PM
Sunday, June 24, 2007
I am weak
Even though I had ice cream this afternoon, I capitulated to a further sugar craving and went back to The Garden Slug this evening for their delicately stewed pears in white wine sauce. They were as good as I remembered.
Given this week's track record, however (5 desserts in the past 7 days), I am hereby declaring a moratorium on sweets and desserts for a week. Either that, or I gotta start running again.
Technorati Tags: dessert
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:19 PM
Day of rest III
Okay, I did squeeze in a smidgen of work today, but mostly I took the day off.
Finally the east gets its own "we make our own ice cream" joint: Ice Cream Chefs, along East Coast Road at Ocean Park. Unpretentious is the word --- there are only about 10 ice cream flavours and seating at about 5 tables.
Still, that's good enough of a range. I had a Mrs Smith --- green apple with cinammon, very fresh and sorbet-tasting, just what the doctor ordered on a hot, humid afternoon like today's. The friend I was with had a Cuppucino that had real coffee kick (as opposed to the overly sweet taste of most coffee-flavoured desserts). I want to come back for the Nutella Delight (tempted, Dave?) and maybe even the Horlicks for nostalgia's sake.
Ice Cream Chefs' niche --- because whipping up one's own flavours isn't enough these days --- seems to be also that they "mix in", not just sprinkle on top, whatever sweet additions one might desire, from chocolate syrup to Tim Tams to granola. The mixing-in process necessitates a measure of folding the additional ingredients into the ice cream and sort of mashing everything together, while the ice cream retains a fairly solid consistency. For people who have a really sweet tooth, I guess.
Related post: Day of rest II, Day of rest
Technorati Tags: Singapore, ice cream, ice cream chefs
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 7:43 PM
Friday, June 22, 2007
Too much mediocre dessert
One of the projects I'm working on is rushing to print, and since all of us working on it are freelancers, the last two days have been spent living in various downtown cafes, madly checking proofreading changes and making sure that the final text is as clean as it can be without any of us (managing editor, copy editor or publication designer) losing our minds.
Yesterday, we were at Geek Terminal, where there was a dearth of attractive corporate types in swanky Hugo Boss suits, but abundant good service. On the other hand, several things on the menu were inexplicably unavailable, including the brownies I'd been hoping would satiate my sugar craving. I settled for a warmed apple cake instead and thank goodness for the heap of vanilla ice cream that came with it, because the cake was more like a muffin and not particularly tasty.
Today, we were at Dome Cafe at the Singapore Art Museum, which had the same Bjork CD (Homogenic) playing the entire afternoon. Either someone on the staff really loves Bjork or they're impervious to music. Anyways, while Dome's menu has really improved lately (it was quite ho-hum when the chain first launched in Singapore in the late '90s), the carrot cake that I was lusting after (because someone'd had it at a meeting earlier this week at a different Dome) turned out to be a tad dry and not quite as sweet as I like my carrot cake.
On the bright side, we're almost ready to put the publication to bed, so I should soon have the time to return to either The Secret Garden for their incredible apple crumble or The Garden Slug (hm --- there seems to be an unintentional horticultural theme going on here) for some of those stewed pears.
Oh dear. I just realised this means I've had four really sugar-laden desserts in six days.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Geek Terminal, Dome Cafe, dessert,
Labels: Food for thought, Freelancin' living
posted by Tym at 11:35 PM
Sunday, June 17, 2007
My kind of neighbourhood cafe
First domch told me about a party they catered. Then Ondine blogged about it. Then I was in the mood to try someplace new tonight, so I hauled BoKo off to dinner at The Garden Slug.
Bottled beer only $7 each! Take that, George's & Blooie's.
Attentive owner who knows the menu! Always a bonus.
Stewed pears in white wine and cinammon! I'll come back just for that.
Downsides? My "buttery garlic" pasta could've used more garlic, though the lime leaves added a subtle pizzazz to the mix. And there's no washroom in the cafe, so you have to put your faith in the rather dubious-sounding instructions to "go around the corner and then look under the stairs" (to be fair, it was a perfectly clean washroom).
Like Ondine, I will come back another day (when I'm not recovering from a bad throat) for the 2-brownie popsicle. The all-day breakfast looks tempting too, except that it's paired with yoghurt with muesli and honey, but when I crave a late breakfast, I usually want heaps of crease and bacon. Lots of tasty-looking vegetarian or vegan options on the menu, though.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, The Garden Slug
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:09 PM
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Things I wanted to Twitter yesterday
... but didn't have the time or internet connection to.$83.94 for a new remote control for the airconditioner??
Despite all the construction and new traffic, pockets of Portsdown Road are still very pretty.
Nothing like almost choking to breathlessness on a miscplaced gulp of water to add a little perspective to one's day.
People who screw up one's dinner (namely Suzie's) should offer at least a free dessert to atone. (Sun With Moon Cafe, if anyone wants to know. Good food and service, except for the part where they screwed up).
Labels: Food for thought, Personal, Singapore stories, Twitteresque
posted by Tym at 12:36 PM
Friday, June 01, 2007
TGIF
At dinner at the Cedele restaurant at Wheelock Place tonight, Suzie's wine tasted like crap while mine tasted perfectly fine for a cheap sauvignon blanc --- even though the waitstaff claimed that both glasses were filled from the same wine bottle. Very mysterious.To their credit, though, the waitstaff did the right thing by immediately offering us fresh glasses of wine, even though I told them that mine was fine and didn't need to be changed. And the food was impeccable. I have no idea what exactly goes into the oil dressing they drizzle over all their salads, but it was mighty tasty and not just your usual balsamic vinaigrette concoction. The only downside was that my chocolate hazelnut cake turned out to be more of a chocolate-with-no-hazelnut-flavour-and-with-white-chocolate-icing-and-ONE-hazelnut cake. I don't even like white chocolate.
Down in Borders later, I finally landed a paperback copy of John Scalzi's Old Man War. I don't ordinarily pick up novels in which the protagonists are seventy-five year old men unless the novels are written by Philip Roth, but Old Man's War gets an exemption since I've been reading (and loving) Scalzi's blog for so long.
Technorati Tags: Cedele, John Scalzi
Labels: Books books books, Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:54 PM
Friday, May 04, 2007
Prophetic much?
Who said this in 1970?Life is not just eating, drinking, television and cinema. ... The human mind must be creative, must be self-generating: it cannot depend on just gadgets to amuse itself."Well, obviously, I'm screwed.
Labels: Food for thought, Geek girl, Personal, Pop culture, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 1:02 PM
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
A Chindian lunch
I don't normally use the phrase "Chindian" (i.e. a mixture of Chinese and Indian) and indeed, I'd never heard of it till a few years ago. But it seems appropriate to describe today's made-at-home lunch (not to be confused with a homecooked lunch), which consists of:- basmati rice
- mushroom achari out of an instant pack (thank you, Mustafa)
- a fried egg
Speaking of Chindian meals, has anyone tried the several-months-old Indian Wok at Siglap? It claims to be some blend of Chinese and Indian cuisine, though from the outside the decor looks more heavily Indian than anything. Part of me wants to give it a shot, another part of me shies away from what seems to be yet another variety of "fusion cusine" ...
Technorati Tags: Chindian, lunch
Labels: Domestically challenged, Food for thought, Personal
posted by Tym at 12:56 PM
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Day of rest I
I took the day off.
Note to self: spend more time at East Coast Park.
Labels: Food for thought, Personal
posted by Tym at 9:17 PM
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Thirsty
I know I drink more than my share of 2 litres of water a day, but sometimes I just want to be hooked up into an IV drip of iced green tea, stat.Labels: Food for thought, Personal
posted by Tym at 6:33 PM
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
What does a cow's lung taste like?
Sorta spongy but, surprisingly, without any strong flavour like liver (which I'm not a fan of) or kidney (which I sometimes like).
I don't know if the Chinese --- alleged purveyors of all impossible-to-fathom gastronomical choices --- cook lung, but what I had was at a Malay food stall, where it's called paru-paru and the lung(s?) seems to have been salted and fried.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, cow lung
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 3:43 PM
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Call it a seafood surprise
So the original plan was to eat at Hua Yu Wee, a charming Chinese seafood restaurant located in an old bungalow (the kind that used to qualify as a seaside bungalow till land reclamation took the sea away from it). Then I couldn't get through on the phone to reserve a table and by the time I did at 4:45 pm today, they told me they were fully booked for tonight.So I called Ponggol Seafood and booked a table there, thinking that they were still located at East Coast Parkway. Except that they were not, which I only found out when I directed the family to what I thought was the restaurant and found the space occupied by --- well, it all looked different.
So after I apologised for screwing up big-time, we ended up at the place we didn't want to eat at: the East Coast Seafood Centre. I hadn't really wanted to eat there because it's always obstreperously crowded on weekends and I didn't want to be shouting over the table all night. Plus I'm always a little doubtful of the quality of food at places that have become bona fide tourist destinations.
As it turned out, the rain seems to have thinned the crowd somewhat (the weather's been very monsoon redux lately), and we got a table at Chin Wah Heng Restaurant haste posthaste.
Besides the availability of bamboo clams, there are plenty of other reasons to eat at Chin Wah Heng:
- We all remarked that the chilli crab sauce and deep-fried baby squid dish were noticeably less sweet than they typically are at other restaurants --- which suggests that the kitchen doesn't season everything liberally with sugar to make it taste good.
- Our plates, heaped with prawn and crab shells and other discards, were cleared often enough to put some hotel wedding banquets to shame.
- The vegetables were not the first dish to arrive.
- The staff were all indefatigably polite, despite my feeble command of Chinese.
- Although one staff member dripped a spot of chilli crab sauce onto my arm, his apology was so overwrought as he speedily fetched wet towelettes for me, you'd've thought he'd thrown up all over me or something.
- They gave us fresh hot water for our teapot without us asking for it, even though we were obviously already done with our meal by then.
- I'm not sure if it had anything to do with the spillage incident, but we got a plate of complimentary fruit at the end of our meal.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, East Coast Seafood Centre, seafood
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 11:43 PM
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Matcha madness
The thing about ordering pretty Japanese desserts with a group of friends who happen to blog (save one), is that when the pretty Japanese desserts arrive, everyone whips out their digital cameras to take pretty portraits while the precious ice cream is melting all over the dessert.
Meanwhile, the one who doesn't blog also takes out his digital camera (incidentally, the largest and most sophisticated one at the table) and starts taking pictures of us taking pictures of our desserts.
Well, now.
Eventually, we did eat the desserts and they were about as tasty as they had looked --- which is to say, very artfully put together, occasionally with mysterious ingredients (the dango tasted damn good but what the hell went into it, besides flour?), and satisfyingly sweet but not overly so, taking the cue from American-style sundaes without merely replicating them entirely.
Now if we'd added the "raw honey" provided in the little juglet, that would've been overkill.
Technorati Tags: dessert, ice cream, Japanese dessert
Labels: Food for thought, Life in the internet age
posted by Tym at 11:43 PM
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Sweetness and light
I thought I was in the mood for a huge slice of cake, but then we four decided to split the dessert sampler at the Fullerton Courtyard instead, and that was so much better.
I am, however, declaring a moratorium on mediocre desserts for the Xmas season. Only good desserts will be eaten.
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 4:32 PM
Sunday, October 22, 2006
About last night
There was the drive:Cowboy Caleb (from the back seat): Are we there yet?There was dinner:
Cowboy Caleb (at the start of dinner): I'm so hungry, man. Can we order a pizza to share? A risotto?There was dessert:
Cowboy Caleb (upon the arrival of his Fiorentine bisteccona): This is the sort of meal that makes you feel like a man.
Cowboy Caleb (halfway through the Fiorentine bisteccona): I'm so full. I can't finish this, man.
Cowboy Caleb: (silence)All happening at Ristorante da Valentino.
Taken by Cowboy Caleb
Technorati Tags: Singapore, Ristorante da Valentino, Valentino's, Cowboy Caleb
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 12:11 PM
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Saturdays are for ...
... brunch at Killiney Kopitiam ("Which Killiney Kopitiam are we going to?" "Er ... the one at Killiney Road ... ") with the gang of old friends. The boys egged me on to order mee siam mai hum ("We'll back you up with a loud chorus," Packrat promised) while the girls belatedly realised that we were all wearing pink (unintentional, we swear). wahj enlightened us that the Pollution Standards Index reading at 11 am today was 128 (anything above 100 is Bad For One's Health), which explains why the air smells execrable and the sunlight's all washed out. Kay was impressed that everyone knew about their new refrigerator. Ondine showed off her new bag to grand admiration all round. And G-man gave us a ride home in his new(ish) car, which made me wish I had a small car of my own to zip around in so that I wouldn't have to be at the mercy of our world-class transport system.I am declaring a moratorium on kaya toast for at least a month.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, breakfast, brunch
Labels: Food for thought, Personal, Singapore stories
posted by Tym at 2:08 PM
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Where not to eat in Singapore: überburger
Sarah says it all:first off if you can make it through the menu that's a feat in itself - it's typed in this funny font and is trying to be all hip and happening by combining numbers and letters and adding their signature ü all over the place.Read her full review of überburger.
Related posts: Where not to eat in Singapore: Happy Pay Steamboat, Where not to eat in Singapore: Cafe Cartel
Technorati Tags: Singapore, makan, Singapore food, where not to eat in Singapore
Labels: Food for thought
posted by Tym at 6:05 PM