Random

Spotted in a hotel lobby. I get the 'R' button, it probably stands for 'redial'. But what about 'F'?



A bell jar of my favourite keropok! Heavenly!



A bowl of wanton mee but where is the wanton??



After 'digging' and 'stirring' around, I found ONE. One miserable looking wanton!
Is this oneton mee or wanton mee??
J suggested that the next time I order, I should say 'a bowl of wantonS mee, please'. Grrr!

Rainy Saturday

We had this for breakfast today.

Sprite, vodka and fresh lychees

Refreshing!
It's a very simple drink to make, perfect for lounging around on a rainy day. :)

Shakespeare quotes coaster, part of a set of 6.

Wish I had bought more than a box. It would make a lovely gift!

J cooks

J finally used the Happycall pan I bought him. Hurray!

I didn't manage to take pictures of the first thing he cooked. Think it was an omelette that fast disappeared into my stomach!

This is beef I think.

Yummy fried rice! Egg, fishcake and Chinese sausage (lup cheong) and luncheon meat

Fabulous Friday

Dinner at Chang, a Korean restaurant at Dempsey Hill.

Fried vermicelli (Jab Chae)

Kimchi Pancake  (Kimchi Jeon)

Spicy chicken stew (Maewundakgalbi-Jjim)

Colourful parrots at Dempsey, just outside Chang

Technically it's not my birthday

This is the birthday cake that got cut up before the birthday song was sung and the birthday girl got to make a wish. No, seriously, I kid you not.

And the conversation that took place?

You cut the cake??
Ya.
But you haven't sung me the song and I didn't get to make a wish!
Oh... (Pregnant pause) But it's not your birthday yet. Your birthday is tomorrow.
So am I getting a cake tomorrow?
Nope. This is it.

?!?!

Happy 36th birthday to me in advance. I wish myself good health and lots of joy in the coming year!

April

came and went and boy am I glad!

The month saw me busy right from the start. Deadlines were impossible but continued to stream in like nobody's business. At least once a week, I slept at 4 am on a work day. While I know many people who can survive on just a few hours of sleep regularly, I can't. I turn 36 in 2 days time but I still need at least 8 hours of sleep daily. 10 hours if possible!

Thanks to the crazy work schedule, my body took a beating and I fell terribly ill towards the end of April. Even on the 2 days I was on medical leave, I was pushed to produce 2 separate piece of work. No, it's not the cure to cancer but for some inexplicable reason, the papers were important to the people who set me the 24hour turnaround deadline.

The end results? 2 pieces of work produced, 2 trips to the clinic, 3 days of medical leave, 7 types of medicine and 1 pregnancy test.

The last was a shocker. Pregnant?! Are you kidding me? I haven't even the time to  sleep, much less get pregnant. But the good doctor insisted on playing it safe. He thought it was weird that I was feeling so nauseated all the time and got even more worried when he found out that the last menstrual cycle was unusual. I told him it was probably a bad case of flu and gastritis but nope, the doctor was bent on me taking the test.

Of course, I am not pregnant. 

So there goes money down the drain.

But every cloud has a silver lining. J learnt how to cook porridge because the doctor had given strict instructions that I was not to eat oily or spicy food. I know porridge is  not really difficult to cook but considering how he never has to cook it till today, I'd say he did a pretty good job!

Oh and did I mention that I bought a happycall pan for J? He saw the TV ad and decided he'd like to experiment with the pan. I'm happy to eat whatever he cooks with it, as long as I don't have to do any work in the kitchen!

Roast meat

This is apparently everyone's favourite roast meat stall. By that, I mean J, his buddies and my siblings.



It's somewhere in Serangoon but I don't know the address.



Apparently glazing with honey before roasting makes all the difference. I think my pictures do it injustice.

Breakfast without you

sucks.



In so many ways, on so many levels, I miss you.
I miss going to work with you.
I miss our meals together at the university.
I miss being at work knowing your office is just a block away from mine.
I miss picking up the phone, dialing your extension, and hearing your voice.
I miss going home from work at unearthly hours together with you.
I miss bumping into you in the library, at the cafe, in the canteen by chance and the surge of happiness that follows.

I miss you.

The story of a man and three women

These are J's favourite food for CNY. Every year without fail, he buys and eats tons of these. Me? I like neither.


Muay Chee - a sort of sweet glutinous rice based treat.


Ba Kwa (肉干) - roasted dried meat. The Asian version of beef jerky? Just sweeter and juicier. Mind you, not any brand will do, only the one shown in the photo above.

Every year, I'll tell him to eat in moderation. He ignores me every single time.

Enters his mother-in-law who only has to say it to him once how we are what we eat and obediently he will stay away from these food for a good few days. This pattern repeats every year without fail.

My mother-in-law? She joins him in the merry eating! Hahaha!

Supper

at Fat Boy's turned out great. I love the fat basterd burger! But it's really HUGE and I had to share with J.



Best of all, they have my favourite cider! But for $10 a bottle, it felt a little like daylight robbery.



J prefers strawberry while I'm more partial towards elderflower.

Hong Kong #1

Like many, we love the eating bit in HK. There's so much good food, I hardly take pictures of them anymore. Besides, a quick search on the Internet will lead you to a zillion blog posts about what and where to eat in HK.



What I did take a picture of is this dessert shop. I think it's called Hang Fa Lau. We were told it's pretty good. There is one just 10 metres away from our hotel. J and I love 甜汤 (dessert/sweet soup) and really nothing beats a hot bowl of sweet soup on a winter's day!



Double boiled papaya with white fungus is my favourite. I must have a bowl of this every day every time I am in HK. I know I can do it myself but I'm lazy and it's available every where in HK. So easy!



Usually at the dessert stores, you can also find fried radish cake. (萝卜糕) J swears the ones in HK are better. I think he's just biased. :)



Look at those glass bottles! For the sake of drinking out of a glass bottle, I ordered soft drinks with my wanton mee. So ancient and so nostalgic! I don't even know where we can find these in Singapore.



I eat these small sweet cakes for remembrance sake! We love walking from Tsim Sha Tsui to our hotel late at night. On the way, we will stop by this stall and grab some 鸡蛋仔. Because we did it the first time we went to HK, we have been doing so every trip.





Miniature egg tarts (蛋挞仔) are another of my favourite. I love everything to do with eggs! These are from our favourite dim sum place, Dragon Dynasty (龙朝) in JD Mall.



Maxim's Cakes came up with Angry Birds muffins this Christmas season. Hilarious I thought! The icing isn't great but the chocolate chip muffin is! Yummy.

Taiwan #3

This is all about food!

We raided Shilin Night Market (士林夜市) and had a wonderful time stuffing ourselves silly.



First stop, beef noodles (牛肉面). Cheap and good.





Next, the famous Ah Zong Mee Sua. Once is enough for me though. The mianxian was okay but I didn't fancy the ingredients.





Then I decided I needed something sweet and got 奶油饼, a custard cake of sort. Not too sweet and definitely different from anything I have tried before. I like!



Finally, another must-try, 大鸡排, the gigantic fried chicken chop. Super delicious! We had to share because the piece of fried chicken was the size of an A4 paper.



A fantabulous eating experience! Taipei, I like!

Taiwan #1

We were told Din Tai Fung in Taiwan would be different so off we went in search of the restaurant the moment we got to Taipei. Lucky for us, there is one just two streets away from our hotel.



First thing we noticed was the declaration of the Michelin star on the menu. Our expectations were raised even higher.

It turned out that the food was indeed different. It was more bland and I like my food tasty. Yes, there are a few dishes which seem to be available only in Taiwan and not SG. But if you ask me, I think the DTFs in SG are good enough, even without the 1 Michelin star. :)

Morning madness

Mom had surgery recently and I stayed over to look after her. On the morning I was to take her back to the hospital for her medical review, I grabbed what was to me a bottle of sugar and dumped a teaspoon of it into my coffee.



Big mistake. Turns out it was salt.

The question you might ask, did I drink it?

And the answer is Yes.

Salty or sweet, I need my morning coffee and there was no time to make another cup!

Pork berry anyone??

Another precious morning

Officially I have till the end of the year before I move on to my new job. In truth, it's just another 7 more working days because I will be clearing my annual leave.

I will miss the time I spend with J over breakfast every morning on campus most.

I don't know how this place survives

At 7:38 PM, sales is at a total of 37?



I guess this really is 'hard-earned money'.

On a separate note, the gelato is not too bad. :)

What did you have for lunch?

This was my lunch.

Yes I know there are so many cheaper and better alternatives but
1. this does not require any cooking,
2. I'd like to believe it contains some nutrients,
3. there was nothing else at home to eat.

Lazy ass is me.

A very quiet opening

Starbucks finally opens a branch on university grounds and all there was to it was this tiny tiny sign! Where is the big green signature mermaid signage so familiar to us?? Anyway, on the very first week of its opening, this sign did not survive a sudden downpour and strong winds and was seen flat on the ground, miserably soaked through with rain water.

Someone at work told me that he bought a latte for $4.95 after given a staff discount but it's unlikely he will do so again. Coffee-flavoured milk was how he described his latte. That plus the fact that McDonalds which is 50 metres away sells coffee for $1.65 and cappuccino for $3.30. Its neighbour, Subway, sells a potent cup of coffee for $2.00. Best of all, a marvellous cup of flat white (take-away) from the cafe in our very own library goes for $2.20.

I suspect only the students will patronise Starbucks, the staff members will stick to their cheaper and better alternatives.