seeya later alligator.

i'm off to the netherlands for the next 5 months. byebye singapore i will miss you very marchhh.

check back for dutchie posts! =)

g2000.

ever wondered what does the 2000 in g2000's brand name mean? i'm not very sure but it probably signifies the year that the store actually got springcleaned, because when i visited both of its outlets at plaza singapura and compass point i could see specks of dust dancing in the air. be careful when you enter the dressing room and remember never to look up towards the ceiling unless you fancy choking like a furball:

these dusty guys are peeking at you while you change

maybe they should change their name from g2000 to g2dirty.

allergic to the words "eat" and "food" - temporarily.

i've been meeting up with friends over lunch, dinner and supper so much, coupled with the too-much-good-food hangover from changi village that i actually don't feel like eating anymore. GASP! chew chian lin not happy when she sees food is like barney having no friends!

i swallowed some butterflies into my tummy.

6 more days to go before i embark on a journey like never before and probably never will get to experience again. yikes!

nonsense!

beginning this week, my school is holding its annual arts festival with this year's titled, smu arts festival: it's plain nonsense! i volunteered as part of the school's photography club to take photos of the installations created by external artists for catalouging purposes. it was supposed to be a learning thing but somehow i ended up with 4 guys brandishing lenses and tripods all ready for battle. so i was the only kuku there who hasn't even learnt the difference between aperture and shutter speed, meekly holding kanon and praying for the best. it turned out well in the end with the mini lessons and advice they gave, so at least i went home more knowlegeable than before! some of the works are really quite interesting so if you have some time head down to smu to take a look! =)

click on me for more photos

click on me for more information on smu arts fest

p.s. hcanoeists, zhi ying's one of the only 2 artists from smu who has an individual art installation!
p.p.s. smooers, yao hong's the other of the 2! support him!

gong xi fa cai hong bao please.

happened to be in the selegie area with my parents a few weeks ago so we went to eat the famous tau huay (yumss), and we had to pass by the row of shophouses where five star chicken rice is. right beside it is a very small bakery with a passageway only enough for one to walk through.

my nose took in a whiff of buttery goodness as i walked pass and i had to stop to take a look. they've got lots of newspaper cuttings and apparently they sold really good soy beancurd tarts, something like egg tarts but made from soy beans. so i walked in to get some, only to be told that they've stopped production until after chinese new year. right then someone brought out a plate of pineapple tarts for sampling so i took one. oooo lala... fresh from the oven, the pastry literally melted in my mouth. i almost crumbled to the floor in delight. to cut the story short, we bought a box of pineapple tarts and some coffee cookies home.

the snoopys having a pineapple picnic

nothing beats the one i had fresh from the oven but those we brought home were really good too! they were huge i tell you - the size of golf balls, and packed with loads of the pineapple paste. so if you're one of those who likes the paste, this is PERFECT for you. i happen to be a pastry monster so i think the ones from bengawan solo fits me better.

once you start, you can't stop

my mum and i had to put each other on standby as quantity control when we eat the coffee cookies because once the cover's open, it's just non stop munching. they're really fresh and crunchy and has generous portions of almond flakes in them, which make the cookies absolutely delicious! if you get this for chinese new year i'm sure more people will visit you, then you can get more ang baos!!!! =)

they don't do orders this year so it's on a first come first serve basis, because apparently some uniquely singaporean tried to be funny last year and wanted to order one year in advance. thanks dude. @%^&^#$%#$

www.lecafe.com.sg

a secret in my backyard.

there was this food programme on channel 8 featuring a fat superman flying all over singapore in search of good food. the theme for that day was durians and apart from the usual goodwood etc, they featured a cake shop in jalan kayu. when i heard that, question marks immediately floated above my head. living a stone's throw away from jalan kayu, the prata paradise, for about 6 years now, i never knew that a cake shop existed.

a one woman's show

apparently this cake station of jane's has been around for the longest time and has a steady stream of regulars devouring her durian and chocolate cakes. shame on them for keeping the shop to themselves! so it happened that my family decided to pop by jalan kayu one day to have some prata (which is really rare), and viola! the cake shop was staring at us in the face. since my prata trips are usually done during supper, i'd probably walked past the shop a dozen of times without realising that it's there.

mmmm..

the famous durian cake were all snapped up already, so we had to settle for the chocolate fudge cake ($30) instead. wowwwwww it was practically two freaking thick layers of the softest chocolate sponge cake ever it's heavenly. i would say that the chocolatey taste is a bit lacking perhaps due to the type of chocolate used but the moisture of the sponge cake more than makes up for it. it has got the very traditional wholesome taste just like the ones sold in the friendly neighbourhood bakery, just ten times better.

can u even see the cream in between?

the fat superman in the show said that ms jane makes all the cakes by herself (!!!) which is really quite an amazing feat. if i were to make the same cake x 50 times a day x 365 days a year, i think i'll smash the cake into my own face heh. i can't wait to try the durian cake, hope it doesn't disappoint!

oh by the way this shop has been getting quite a lot of publicity - after the fat superman show, it's going to be on the next episode of makansutra raw, so prior orders are highly recommended.

jane's cake station

265 jalan kayu

64811322

advertising.

was doing some background research on tbwa tequila for a ceo talk that was held in school this evening. they did some pretty impressive campaigns and i was quite in awe of their works, just thought i'd share them! i like the adidas campaign they did for new zealand but i think the one for sony playstation is damn power. had dinner with the ceo of tequila after the talk and i thoroughly enjoyed myself. a very down-to-earth person with a great sense of british humour heh. makes me miss my internship experience and the wonderful people i got to know. =)

a few of tequila's work i particularly like, click on the links to watch the videos!

adidas

sony playstation

standard chartered

my favourite bak chor mee.

every time we drive along serangoon road, my mum will comment about the never ending queue at the famous punggol nasi lemak stall. i personally think it's overpriced and just about alright only. instead, it's the stall opposite that is often overshadowed by mr nasi lemak's popularity, which i really love.

now you see it

amk house of teochew noodles is a winner in itself, with quite a number of awards proudly displayed on the signboard, yet it seems more people favour mr nasi lemak than mr bak chor mee. i used to come here with the guys for supper or during late dinners with the family.

i love the bak chor mee here because the noodles are cooked to perfection - springy without the starchy aftertaste (mee kia for me). the chilli and vinegar combination is a killer, and i like to add some ketchup to my bowl of noodles too. unlike those served in commercialised food courts, this one has a very traditional taste to it. the ingredients, consisting of mushroom, minced meat, meatballs and liver are so basic that it looks deceivingly plain at first. however, the noodles, sauce and ingredients complement one another so well that a burst of flavour is guaranteed with every mouthful.

now you don't!

i couldn't help but let out a satisfactory sigh afterwards. in the east there's bedok 85's soupy bak chor mee which i also love (i love many things), but in the north-east there's the dry version to shout about!

amk house of teochew noodles

mee sek eating house

965 upper serangoon road

some darjeeling for you?

"Three American brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other -- to become brothers again like they used to be. Their "spiritual quest", however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer, and a laminating machine. At this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins."

though it was only 1.5 hours long and cost $9.50 on sunday, the darjeeling limited was worth every single cent. you'll get to have almost the whole theatre to yourself since not many people will be interested to catch it, which is why i’m here to tell you that it’s a must watch!

you'll never know how alternative an "indie" film is going to be until the screen plays, so i always cross my fingers and hope that it's going to be good. the darjeeling limited doesn't disappoint. the conversations between the characters were scripted to fit the scenes so well that the film makes an easy and joyful watch, though upon deeper probing will one realize that it actually packs a ton of meaning between the lines. oh boy the choice of songs! before i could even catch myself, my head was bobbing up and down with the cleverly chosen soundtracks. i was especially in awe of the colours used throughout the film, making every shot extremely simple yet beautiful.

there are a number of humourous scenes which made me laugh so loud it’s embarrassing, and i liked how the film is able to put me through an emotional rollercoaster ride. i must also mention that the three main characters are a perfect fit for the show, except maybe owen wilson, but that’s just because everytime i think of him, I think of his catwalk in zoolander. ;)

by the way, the 11 suitcases in the film were made by *gasp* louis vuitton!

i can’t tell you anymore, or i’ll spoil your movie.

a mini celebration of sorts.

the first decent night shot taken with kanon, i hope its future is brighter than this! no pun intended. =)

marshmallow delight

date: 291207

relish what?

after reading about relish on chubby hubby's site, random images of mouth watering burgers kept flashing through my mind every day. (seriously!) relish is a burger restaurant at cluny court, newly opened by the brains behind wild rocket.

when uberburger was still around, boy was i a fan. they had delicious burgers and fat fries in a bucket. imagine my despair when they decided to close shop for good, and imagine further how happy i was to hear that a similar restaurant had opened its doors for business. i was literally dreaming of those burgers so much that i could stand it no longer and finally headed down on new year's eve.

sneaky shot

mike and i arrived at around 1.30pm to find the place bustling with activity. we were told that the place was already packed and to come back again at 2pm. when we returned, we were informed that we had to wait a little longer before the tables were available. i was fine with that, except that i noticed one or two groups who arrived later than us getting a seat before we did. the situation was quite chaotic, with the staff in charge of the reservation list not following the order of reservations. i was getting quite pissed when another couple strode up to the counter and the staff told them that they're next in line. when i checked that guy's name against the list, i found his reservation later than ours! fortunately for us (or rather the waiter), the manager recognised us before i could start displaying my prowess and led us in promptly to sit.

we pretty much knew what we wanted since i was already close to memorising the menu. mike ordered a soup of the day ($7.50), their signature wild rocket burger ($17) and a recommended beer ($13) to go with his burger. i had to try the ram-lee burger ($19) after reading so much about it.

whilst waiting, a series of horrifying events happened. as i observed one of the staff serving beer at another table, he started pouring the beer from the bottle into the glass which was set flat on the table. the glass of beer ended up with about 4cm of foam. then mike's beer came, served with the bottle already opened and the beer already poured! wasn't the number one rule to open a bottled beverage and pour it in front of the customer? at this point in time, we could only pray that the food would be good enough the make up for these boo boos.

green pea soup

mike was courageous enough to take the soup of the day - green pea soup. the taste was too funky for me to go pass one mouthful, but i guess if you're a pea lover you might like it.

silly saison from silly belgium

the beer was light and refreshing, and was supposed to go down well with the wild rocket burger. mike was pretty happy with his booze at noon, though he looked as red as a lobster after.

the burgers finally arrived! this was supposed to be the restaurant's only saving grace after a witnessing a lineup of substandard service. unfortunately, the burgers we ordered had nothing much to be relished about.

my ram-lee burger came with fries which were shaken with salt and sprinkled with a dash of black pepper. tasted normal, unlike those uberburger had which were delicious even on its own. the burger had a huge beef patty which was done pretty well at medium-rare, though i found it lacking in flavour. the omelette, cheese and beef patty tasted good individually, but when placed together, failed to create the oomph! factor i was expecting of this ram-lee burger.

not quite the ram-lee phenomenon

mike's wild rocket fared a bit better, as the pepper cream used went well with the arugula leaves in the burger. again, the patty was done to perfection, but lacked in the taste and flavour. more seasoning please!

wild rocket burger

i gave my burger plenty of chances, but it pretty much fell flat in the end, and i found myself extremely stuffed yet unsatisfied.

if the whole setting was to change into a normal roadside bistro, i would say relish would be a pretty good place for decent burgers. however, with it being a restaurant, the service was horrible and with the price i'm paying for the burgers, i almost felt as if i got cheated of my emotions and money as i walked out of that place.

to top it all off, when mike and i both insisted on treating each other, the staff serving us the bill suggested in absolute sincerity, "or you two can go dutch, you know". we instantly looked at each other wide eyed and burst out laughing.

perhaps it was due to new year's eve and the restaurant couldn't cope with the sudden crowd. perhaps it just happened that their full time service staff were on leave. perhaps you would like to check the place out for yourself and convince me to give it a second chance. perhaps, but for now, i miss uberburger.

the look on his face says it all