Low Batt Alert

Low battery alert. This week was a week of (too?) many social interactions. Spent a lot of time at Lily's preparing flowers for Easter, which was a great time of getting pregnancy/motherhood/labor advice from someone who has been there, done that. And the cherry on top is of course our favorite kiddo Silas who is seriously the funniest and cutest kid on the block. Then there was small group, and then hanging out at John and Karen's featuring Singaporean chicken rice (!!) and finally getting a bite of the famous Levain's cookies - seriously heavenly. Another afternoon was spent babysitting Si while his parents had to be out and we fed him grapes. And we also spent one morning walking to Tompkins Square Bagels with Guo Kai to try their bagels freshly baked bagels on the hour, definitely worth the walk. Tonight we are having Valerie over for dinner, followed by the Aussie folks for red bean soup. The "I" in me just wants to hang out on my bed by myself and read a book for the rest of the afternoon :p

Spring is well on its way and the flowers are blooming! It was like 20C yesterday and I was feeling hot hot hot! But it went down to 3C today and I had to put on my coat again -.- I was so looking forward to putting on dresses again but oh well, at least not for the next week. April is quickly approaching as well and all the things I've put off till "1 month before EDD" are soon to be due D:

Tompkins Square Bagels with scallion cream cheese, I'm definitely a bagels convert!

Hehe

Levain's cookies, seriously omg!

One of those food posts

Eating is such a luxury, I dread the day that I get some sort of esophageal cancer or intestinal obstruction and have to be kept NBM for bowel rest...or forever. Food photography is such an irrational obsession, I can't explain why I, too, feel compelled to take a photo of that plate of oily noodles just before it slides into my ravenous stomach. I guess food photos makes everyone happy, whether or not we can eat it. Alas, I think I also eat too much.

Escargots à la Bourguignone, La Sirene NYC

Seared Rohan Duck Breast, Topped with Sweet and Tart Michigan’s Cherry Sauce, La Sirene NYC

Breakfast set with century egg porridge, fried noodles, cheong fun and milk tea, Cha Chan Tang NYC

Complain-y Singaporean

After being complain-y the whole time here about not having local Singaporean fare, we finally trooped down to Nyonya for their famed Malaysian fare. I had a bowl of curry mee with yong tau foo and a glass of kopi bing which, I must say, satisfied my soul (temporarily). We also shared char kuay teow and popiah amongst the 4 of us. I think the food would have been yummier in colder weather (10 degrees celsius today!).

Certainly overpriced hawker food but happy nonetheless! :)

Ugh

Ugh. I hate the feeling just days before a clinical exam. You kind of feel like just getting over and done with it, but then again never really feeling quite adequately prepared. I can't wait for Thursday night to come! 

On a side note, SJ's obsession with purple carrots resulted in us eating purple rice. We steamed the carrots in the steamer on top of the rice cooker which then resulted in the carrot juice dripping down into the cooked rice. Well I guess if purple things are generally healthy to eat then why not purple rice? Looks weird though. 

Nomventures

Stumbled across a bag of kuay teow while walking home from supergood dim sum breakfast last Sunday at Jing Feng with S and J, and decidedly endeavored to whip up some 滑蛋河粉. Not super yummy since we were lacking any semblance of wok hei and somehow the cold draft brought the temperature of the zhup down rapidly while eating. Oh, and the lack of green preserved chilis. Nonetheless a good attempt, and a craving satisfied. It doesn't make me miss eating the original any less, but at least I no longer dream of it at night :p

Tor Tee To

Anyone who grew up in 5 Stevens Close would fondly remember our favorite afternoon snack. A plate of oily and soggy Tor Tee To! It essentially is potato strips panfried (not deep fried) and dripped out of its oil on a kitchen towel. My lovely grandma cannot say "potato" for nuts so she gets by with "tor tee to". And the legend it is! We all grew up eating it. And I daresay it made us all smart :)

BCM

So we tried very hard to satisfy the BCM craving. But alas, BCM is not, and cannot be, without lard. #lard

Singaporean at heart

Wow I was right. Looking back on this post, I would totally die to eat the Bukit Timah Market BCM like STAT. I have planned my menu for November.

D':

Pancakes day

Pancakes for breakfast

Hot food!

Everyone tells me you can get anything in NYC. Well, I'm sure I won't be able to find Tiong Bahru chwee kueh. So I shall save some photos of these yummy foods that I have been frantically eating...to tide me through those cold wintry nights...

Sofitel Shanghai Hyland, Club Suite

Neatest prata man, Prata at Bukit Timah Market

Prawn Mee, Pek Kio Market

BCM, Bukit Timah Market

Kopi, Bukit Timah Market

Salted egg crabssss

After like a year of doing data entry/mining and writing and lots of emails, we finally submitted our manuscript! To thank C and K for all their help and guidance, I hosted them (spouse included!) over some Singaporean goodness at Roland Seafood. Check out the sore-throat inducing salted egg and yam crabsssss. As usual, I have a sore throat now :x Happy for C who is post-paces, and K who is on his way to finishing his thesis. Nevermind the outcome of our submission, just glad that it is finally over, and a chapter closed. :)

Ah....

Day off

Gotta love a really neat prata man (y)

On call delivery

So last night I had a happy meal delivered to me while I was on call. SJ had decided to make spaghetti bolognese...from scratch! As with most things that he puts into a pan, it was yummy!

Warmed my poor little hungry stomach on call. :) 

Sian

Need to find some inspiration. Let me indulge in what happened over the long weekend before CVM started.

Kota Tinggi Rainforest, YA Retreat 2014

Brunch at Common Man Coffee Roasters, waaaay overpriced!

Golden oldies

Turned 26 (I think) a couple of days ago and spent it in the good old CDC attending to Tmax 37.9C and new admissions at 9pm. Was rewarded with a nondescript day seeing blues followed by a quiet and peaceful call. When K asked me how SJ spent it with me, I told her we had "expensive steak" and went on to explain that we spent "fifteen whole dollars on a slab of ribeye!". In retrospect that must have sounded really lame haha. Well in truth we usually eat Giant-bought sirloin which costs about $4 for 250g so this steak costs just about four times the price! Expensive enough to be considered a treat. Was certainly not disappointed and was as equally pleased with it as I think I would have been at Mortons. 

Tang's Kitchen Ribeye steak, medium done :)

Was a busy weekend, apt that I spent it mostly with the other turning 26-ers - rounded on Saturday, stole some time out to meet up with SC folks (in both day and night!) Lunched with these ladies, and made sure we took a photo which would be the last photo in a while since S is going to be living in Beijing for the next 3-odd years. :( Can't wait for K's wedding and for a baby to pop too, since in her own words she's "living the standard life", which therefore means marriage and then baby shortly after hehe.

Chilling at a new hipster place the Lokal

After spending the afternoon at SGH with Chee and doing our project, plomped onto a grass patch with this other bunch of ladies (and +1s, dog included) to celebrate an almost-annual (well, not quite) MAF picnic. Thanks to G who provided awesome sparklers and lanterns (telling the shop auntie "我要最贵的, 钱不是问题!" and everyone who brought random food, fun night despite being a mosquito feast. Yoda was high on drugs.

The night we mixed up Qu Yuan and MAF :x

Just to end off this post abruptly with a random picture of this char siew soh, as a representation of my Sunday spent watching Guardians of the Galaxy (boring! don't watch!) and dim sum lunch at Crystal Jade Vivo yums!

#throwback Saturday

Random thought - I am such a Singaporean. Having grown up in such a structured and orderly environment, with time and space free to use put in my own bare hands, I am found to be at a loss! 

Anyway here are just some random photo spamming from one fine day where SJ decided to sign us both up for the Masterclass by Michelin Star Chef Saul Bolton on Saturday, 12 July 2014 at The Cliff (which really, was not a masterclass at all -.-) Happened that we got some good deal for having membership so we took the chance to swing by Sentosa with free entry. Anyway we went home with a pair of flutes on the house, so no complaints there!

Started off with some Wine Appreciation/Tasting thingum, which was just an excuse to have some bubbly early on

Crab Party

The husband is yet away on another B&B Games trip and I've chosen to stay back in prep for the upcoming exams. I hate that I'm putting my life on hold again because of work/exams/stuff. Need to get a life :(

In other news, my brother ordered crabs to be delivered to their house last night and we had a crab party! No Sri Lankan crabs since they were out of stock but succulent mud crabs did the trick. Nom nom nom.

What an uninteresting post. Days of my life.

Good things don't last forever

Was bummered out that Toby's was closed the entire time I was on leave for renovations, and only due to open on the 22nd (immediately after I return to work). Was thrilled to find out on Thursday that they were re-opening two days earlier and giving out the first 50 coffees free to celebrate their early opening! SJ and I turned up at 8:20am to a half filled cafe and enjoyed a free cuppa each. Turns out that it wasn't much of a celebration since they also re-printed all their menus and raised prices by about 20% D: The price of our favorite croissant set had been exponentially increased with a marginal addition of some chips and tomatoes. Meh. And their Toby's breakfast now costs like $25!!! (face of horror). Never eating that again. 

Good things certainly don't last forever >(

Toby's croissant with scrambled eggs, espresso maple bacon, chips, tomatoes and lettuce. 

Overrated Coffee, don't bother

(via enticingtimes)

Dimbulah
(60 Robertson Quay, #01-07 The Quayside)

Boomerang Bistro and Bar

(60 Robertson Quay #01-15 The Quayside)

Papa Palhetta

(140 Bukit Timah Road)

In Order of Merit

Toby's Estate

(8 Rodyk Street, #01-03/04)

Jones the Grocer

(333A Orchard Road, #04-21/23 Mandarin Gallery)

Smitten Coffee and Tea Bar

(60 Robertson Quay, #01-11 The Quayside)

Forty Hands

(Blk 78 Yong Siak Street, #01-12)