..............................Persis is married!..............................

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Singapore Part II - Catching up with old friends

I've been down in the dumps being so far away from The Boy. So, this week I got a grip and got off my butt and met up with old friends. There was my church group at Rider's Cafe, which I didn't take any pictures off. Many of the riding clubs have nifty cafes where the expats hang out. My spa is even located in a turf club! Food is generally ok - you go more for the colonial atmosphere, as they tend to come with - you know, dark wood, white walls, bamboo blinds, whirring fans, muggy breeze.

For most of my Singaporean friends, however, food is actually very important. Here are some of the highlights:

Met up with C and her fiance HM
- we're getting married on the same day!

White steamed chicken
@ The Soup Restaurant, Seah Street.
Best chicken I've had - too bad doesn't come with chicken rice.

Where it comes to chicken rice:
Dad likes 5 Star.
Boon Tong Kee has become too chee chee.
Wee Nam Kee has really gone down - it's tasteless!

We then adjourned to look for some sweets.
I never knew there were so many people in Singapore.
I am told that there are now 4.6 million people in Singapore;
2/3 are citizens and permanent residents;
that leaves a freaking 1.2 million foreigners
- half a million from China!
It was, needless to say, very crowded, but we found a seat @ Crystal Jade.

I thought this dessert menu (above) was pretty decent already, until...

I turned it open and there were blinking 3 more pages of dessert!

@ Killiney Road Coffee Shop with mum, now located at the
busy food hub of Singapore (one of many)
that is Seah St, Liang Seah St, Purvis St and Beach Road
(so many ma la hot pot restaurants! apparently all
opened by Chinese nationals too...)


The coffee is OK.

This blogger is very suaku and has actually
never been to Ya Kun (the Other local coffee shop).

The laksa at Killiney is more lemak (coconut milk) than
Katong Laksa (the Famous laksa now chain).

Mum taught me Singaporean coffee vocab the other day:
kopi = white coffee
kopi peng = iced coffee
kopi o = black coffee
kopi see = with evaporated milk
(they add condensed milk over here)
kopi siew dai = less sugar
("dai" because sugar used to be produced
by a local company called Dai Ho)

Cousins' gathering @ Pasta Brava.
My risotto nero.
Wedding diet prohibits pasta. Grr...

Dim sum with my best friend
@ Golden Peony, Conrad Centennial Hotel).
Truly, Singapore has reached the heights of dim sum sophistication.
More excellent places to go to now!

Other places I like:
Wah Lok, Carlton Hotel (parent's fav)
Shang Palace, Shangri-La Hotel (my fav)

Being a bride-to-be, I've also been noticing restaurant china.
And turning my plate over
- quite a few high-end Chinese restaurants use Narumi!

Catching up with my friend, KC.
We hung out at Dempsey (another food hub).

First @ The Red Dot (brewery).
Great place, laid back, excellent beer (check out my green beer,
which contains spirulina!), good food, not crowded.

Then @ The Wine Company with a bottle of
Burgundy and a platter of cheese.
Hm... wine and cheese goes muggy very quickly in Sg weather,
even in a/c though obviously slower than if outside....

Will update with trip to SAM (Singapore Art Museum) and more cooking adventures!

P.S. The wasabi burger is a stroke of genius! Fish and wasabi - why didn't anyone think of putting Mac's fish-0-fillet with wasabi mayo before?!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Always home: Back in Singapore

Apologies for the dire quality of my pics - I'm still majorly jetlagged. Last time home in Sg as a single!

Excellent Braised Beef Cheek @ Shang Palace, Shangri-La Hotel

The best xiaolongbao in town @ Ming Jiang, Goodwood Park Hotel

I thought this was fascinating: a wasabi burger @ MacDonalds
(Will try and report soon)
On the way out from lunch at the new Taiwanese restaurant
at Liang Court - another Tung Luk venture

New wedding makeup -
Do I really wear all that junk on my face everyday?!
Girls in Sg are way ahead of the game when it comes to makeup -
double eyelid tape anyone? (sounds needlessly painful, if you ask me)

Today we had father-daughter time out (mum was out for lunch with her girl friends). Dad brought me to Hort Park, Singapore's new horticultural oasis. We ate at Kha, a Thai restaurant. Well-executed old favourites in a modern setting. Amazing drinks. Grossly overpriced though.

Good news: I think I've found my wedding shoes!

Singapore is changing so quickly I can't catch up. I think that's a good thing. Whether it's the arts, architecture, food & wine, technology, customer service, public policy savvy or simply to know what's hot and what's going on, Singaporeans are truly ahead of the game. Am excited about the prospect of visiting some of the new art galleries and learning more about Chinese contemporary art (check out Cai Guo Qiang's installation at the Guggenheim on my sidebar). Of course, there is still a "bubble" mentality and the advance can sometimes be more brute superficiality than knowing evolution (Usha Nathan, editor of the Singpaore Art Gallery guide, has a good take on that sentiment here). And the visage of consumerism attacks you from all sides when you drive down Orchard Road. I am impressed and sad at the same time. I guess we'll have to leave it at that for the moment.


Almost home: Houston, TX

We still had to eat, right?

Swirl @ River Oaks Shopping Centre.
A new favourite hangout. Great yoghurt, healthy, opens late.
Take a tub, fill it with yoghurt/fruit/nuts/candy, weigh, pay (a lot).
We really should buy shares.

The Blue Nile, Ethiopian restaurant.
A cosmopolitan eye to Houston.
But really like any Ethiopian food I've had in London,
only because I'm not an expert.

The universal language of beer: Ethopian beer

Absolutely the best blinking migas in town
@ La Guadalupana

... so good we even have it at our lunch break

... that also serves the best guac (and tres leches) in town
(trust me, I've had A LOT of guac).
Chef Transitos Dias adds a Mexican herb in his guac, and his
tres leches has FIVE milks in it.

An old favourite: Reading our Bibles at The Tart Cafe (Montrose).
This is my oasis, my sanctuary, in Houston.
My favourite wi fi spot.

Lovingly hand cut fruits every morning - what a luxury!

My first football game.


My first hurricane experience:

Ok, so we skipped town before Hurricane Ike struck. In SA.
My favourite Krispy Kreme flavour -
I wish they didn't dress it up with all that sugar though.

Cactus! Another first.

The worst we came back to was a VERY smelly fridge.
The Boy cleaning the fridge.
Tip: At this level, forget the charcoal and soda bicarbonate.
Throw open your doors and windows and just AIR the dang thing.

Second home: A second last look

Favourite past-time: Tea!

The menu is actually upside down...

Tip: A cuppa at Fortnum is much nicer than
sitting in Starbucks,
and for almost the same price!

My favourite garden:

Inner circle bench inscriptions:

You have to eat an elephant bite by bite
Bob Wilkinson, 1935-2004

The Awakening,
In fond memory of Anne Lydia Evans, 1929-1999,
who shared the secret of this garden

For Audrey Etta Matthews, 1925-2005,
A place in her memory, for others to enjoy

Nicholas Andrew Bacon, Died 23rd July 1980,
Aged 16 years and 2 months,
who found this garden a haven of peace

In fond memory of Lilian (Doris) & George Richardson,
1923-2003, ever-proud local citizens whose
great admiration for this park began during their
childhood days spent here

Ian Fraser, 1962-2004
We will meet again

With the Sultan of Brunei's brother's
London residence in the background


I will be leaving London for good on 29th November 2008, when I get married. Goodbye - you will always be special in my heart.