Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning done on some unknown part of my house, not by me of course. I wish I had the time to get rid of those bacteria colonies all over my room. My mother did...and somehow a childhood toy was discovered hidden in a box.

Ahhh....sweet childhood...days of no work and all play. Highly nostalgic to those days...

Till then.

Neglect

This blog is so neglected i nearly forgot I own one. Anyway, i'm still lacking the the important thing called 'time' so don't expect anything fanciful. School work is strangling me...

On a more relaxing note, the submission of 2 assignments last Friday gave us a real good reason to unwind with this:

A nice fragrant piece of waffle with a generous scoop of cookies and cream at Haato. The waffle's real nice, I love it! I suppose Gelare's should stand aside for this. Price is reasonable at S$6.50 too. Man, I should start baking waffles....recipes anyone?

Till then.

Dim Sum @ Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant

I need elaborate no further. It's the much anticipated dim sum lunch gathering @ Ah Yat Seafood Restaurant, Turf City. Second visit to this ulu place located on a peaceful area of Singapore. It used to be rowdy on the weekends, at least from my memories of the place. One can hardly squeeze up the buses that pass through Bukit Timah with all the gamblers rushing to make their killings(or get killed) at the racecourse. The process of event organisation is a mental torture. Especially true when you see the attendance dwindling...from 7 to 6 and finally 4: Garrie, Michelle, her bf and me.

Anyway, dim sum at 50% discount on weekdays at a high-class restaurant, what else to ask for? Look at the pictures:

The eggtarts. Michelle was demanding eggtarts on the way there, we were thinking "eggtarts for dim sum? Since when did eggtarts originate from China?". Got stumped when we saw it on the menu. Honestly, not the best, just normal, better than those at bakeries though. I still prefer the ones from Crystal Jade.

Forgot the name for this. But supposedly it's Chee Cheong Fun with either shrimp or Char Siew wrapped in it. A big serving of both. The shrimp's fresh and the char siew's good. But one complain though, the skin's too thick...i prefer mine thin and slippery so it glides in well. And once again, CJ offers better quality.

The must-have dish, Steamed Shrimp Dumpling. My favourite at every dim sum affair. Disappointing dish though, I had high expectations for it. The skin's too think and the fillings aren't juicy enough! Not fantastic but I suppose it isn't that bad either.

Deep-fried Beancurd Roll with Shrimp. Oh I quite like this, the beancurd skin's well-fried to a golden crisp and the shrimp filling inside is substantial. Finally something I don't have much complaints on.

The Char Siew bun. Common dish to occupy some space in the stomach. Sorry but i'm not a particular fanatic of buns or bread. The char siew inside was nice and juicy though. Worth a try.

Halfway through the affair. How could I have forgotten about the carrot cake on the right? This, my dears, is a very nice carrot cake. Slight crisp on the outside and soft on the inside with the occasion fragrant shrimp. You won't regret trying this. Give the dumpling rice with abalone a miss though, heard it's not really palatable. A plain space filler.

I remember this name. Something like Fried Banana balls with red bean paste. I wouldn't try it a second time though. Taste exactly like the Goreng Pisang from the hawker centers, no taste of the red bean paste. Money-waster, try others instead.

Here comes the finale, Deep-fried Seafood Roll. This is the best dim sum of the day. Something unique that i've never eaten before and it's fantastic. I can really just order a whole table of it for dim sum. I suppose it takes quite a bit of effort for this dish, crispy outer layer with an intricate blend of seafood paste in the middle. I tasted lots of shrimp and others which I still can't figure out. This is really good, a must-have for the affair.

For such quality and a 50% discount, the 4 of us chalked up a bill of merely 46 bucks. I suppose this is a cheap price to pay. Some hits and misses but overall worth the amount we're paying for a fulfillng meal. One thing to note, especially for people allergic to seafood, is that most of the dim sum uses prawns and I mean lots of prawns as the main ingredient. A distinct difference from many others who use the cheaper alternative that is pork. A thumbs-up for seafood lovers but no-no for seafood allergic poor souls.

Till then.

Dinner @ Essential Brews

Long absence from the blogging arena and especially so for my own space. Welcome my re-entry with posts on more food.

Finding a cosy corner for a good chat with friends is not an easy chore, active organisers should empathise with me on this issue. Seeked high and low, had decided to take a break from Holland Village but it's hard...really hard. So many delicate eateries amalgamated into a quiet corner away from the bustling city. I just can't seem to steer away from this area...just yet.

Anyway, ended up making reservations @ Essential Brews on a stagnant Wednesday evening for a chit-chat session cum belated birthday celeration with Jiawen. Essential Brews, a 2-storeys restaurant, but somewhat more inclined towards a cafe. The 1st storey's quite non-happening as few can be seen at the ground level but it's a different story altogether once you get to the upper level. Over here, there're no hard wooden chairs. Just an elevated wooden platform with low tables and guess what? Plenty of cushions to go round for comfort...perfect place for lazing around on a passive evening. Besides that, I managed to reserve a seat just by the windows, ensuring us of a sumptous night scene.

Food pictures coming right up!

My salmon...I should say this isn't bad at all. In fact I like the taste of it. A generous thick chunk of pan-fried salmon with some 'tea-extract' sauce. The sauce's on the rice too. I love salmon! Was it $14.50?? Can't seem to remember but should be near.

Ah...the much awaited Green Tea Creme Brulee. LC this is for you!! A daring venture but with all honesty I declare mine as the preferred choice. This creme brulee isn't what i'll call 'smooth'. Maybe just for the green tea flavour. $4.50 for this 'moss-lookalike thing'.

Our Tiramisu...think it's the first time I tried this so can't really comment. Supposed it's normal. Anyway, as per the Creme Brulee, it's a shared dessert between Jiawen and me. $4.95 for this.

Essential Brews as the name suggests, should be a place for drinking tea right? So definitely we ordered a brew. Can't decide on any so we saw this "Chef's hat" icon beside this "Camomile Tea". Greatest regret of this meal....and I finally realised the function of the bottle of honey that comes together with the tea. The camomile tea is simply just not my taste and I ended up adding so much honey it became a hot honey beverage.

Well, it's the company that matters most.

Till then.

Another new school year

Time flies. It really does seem that way. 3 months of 24 hours definitely aren't enough. Working really saps most of my precious time and energy away too. Finally the new school year kicks in on monday and there I was happily still thinking school starts next monday!

Anyway, school began with a gentle pace. Just nice to remind me of the impending workload and allowing me to re-adapt to life as a student.

Ziping came to crash my lecture yesterday. And of all lectures I had to let him see one of the worst scenes in Bioscience. He had to come for the lecture by Dr. K.

By the way, this Sony Ericsson's latest phone W660i is my new toy. I can even blog direct from the phone!

Check things out
http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc=sg&lc=en&ver=4000&template=pip1&zone=pp&pid=10867

Some updates from last week.
An urgent exit from the workplace on Friday, my colleagues gave me a sumptous treat at Botak Jones, Ang Mo Kio Branch. Work can get stagnant and boring but these agents and of course the secretaries' company definitely livens up the mood! Sorry to Alvin and the others for not attending your dinner cum movie at Vivo ok! I'll not be seeing these nice people for a long while.

Ok, this is my 'Double Botaks'. 300grams of hand-pounded beef. I would rate it as rather good but not excellent. Honestly, I prefer a little blood in my meat. This is too dry for my liking. But the serving is really huge for the pricing.

Bianca had her beef coated in cheese.

While the rest had 'Cajun Chicken'. Check their website for the pricing etc.

For every event, it's always the company that matters. That night, the food and ambience were exceptionally good. And we chatted away late into the night. Reallt hope to meet up with these people again soon. Insurance anyone?

Till then.

Weekends

Weekends are the days for the busy office workers to withdraw from the strugglings of the corporate lifestyle and retreat for some tranquility. But weekends forever seem so short to me.

Saturday was spent on tuition with the boys. They weren't particular cooperative, really gave me hell of a headache this weekend, A power nap ensued and soon I was out on a jog with Kianyong. Much to our surprise, we met Mad on a bike which she refuses to dismount from to jog with us!! How unsporting.

Sunday mornings are to be spent accompanying my grandmother. I spent the morning to afternoon chasing after her, feeding her and folding+unfolding+folding again clothes with her. Everything irritates her....tough times. Rushed home and embarked on a baking adventure. My oven had never worked as hard as yesterday for its duration in my household.

Began the ambitious drive to bake 2 things:

1. Creme Bulee


2. Chocolate Chip Cookies

Creme Bulee(Recipe courtesy of LC's recommendation)

Baking accomplished, out came 4 jiggly custards. Can't eat it yet but the aroma is overwhelming!

A close-up shot of the most successful custard. Anyway, the blackened areas are not overcooked, they're just caramelised. Sweet tasting, no where near those cancerous stuff.

The process of making the caramel layer. I don't own a fancy butane torch, so let's just improvise by using the griller. But apparently I was getting much of the heat too. Watch those brown sugar bubbling like hot lava.

Presenting to you....Creme Bulee!!

The freshly-made caramel layer was crispy and really blends in well with the custard below. Can be consumed both warm or cold. Word of advise though, the elderly might find it a tat too sweet. I took ~10mins to caramelise 1 of this, my mother took less than 3 secs to scrape, scoop and sling a big chunk of the caramel layer into the bin!!

Smooth and silky. Simply melts in your mouth.

Chocolate Chip Cookies(Recipe courtesy of my boss' friend)

Everything blended in and ready for baking!
On the cookie sheet, the pioneer batch awaits.
Tonnes of deliciously baked cookies!
This is for grandma and relatives taking care of her.
These are for me!!! I never knew cookies could taste so nice.

Till then...

I got tagged!!

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Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog!

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Ok, kind of bored over here, so let's just play a little mad's game of 'tagged'. 6 weird things, I wonder if a plain normal guy like me has that much deviation from the common lot.

1. I like to sit cross-legged, as in when we were younger back in primary/secondary school days and we had to bear hours sitting cross-legged in the hall listening to boring speeches. Somewhat rather, even when I'm sitting on a chair, I feel more comfortable or to a greater extent, I can think better in a cross-legged position.


2. I like to cook or bake. Quoting Mad, i'm 'domesticated', a rare species....probably extinct! I love good food, I love sharing good stuff and I believe that's what made me want to try cooking/baking nice delicacies for all to share. Sharing and giving, those are joys of life right? Seeing the smile from the person you just shared with makes every hardship worthwhile. By the way, I just did something nice yesterday, will blog about that in the later post.


3. As mentioned, I love food and taking scenic pictures of them. Partly as memories of having eaten them but mainly to share and put forward a direct picture to interested parties. Doesn't the saying goes like 'a picture speaks a thousand words'? Seeing is better than me spending extra effort and using every possible adjective to portray the best image.


4. I don't really fancy the idea of staying home. I like to go out travelling. It doesn't necessary have to be overseas, I travel locally too. I can just finish work, go to a bus stop, hop onto the first bus that comes along and go with the flow. I've been telling some people in the past that if you dump me in town, I can't find my way home. But since coming out to work and with the fabulous invention called the bus concession, i'm proud to proclaim that i'm much more aware of this little red dot.


5. I speak/treat everyone differently depending on what level you are at. If my feeling is that you are a potato, by default i'll speak to you in English and the converse is true. Here i'm talking about mental preparedness and maturity, not anything physical. If you are mature, i've serious topics for you too. Well if you're aged below 16 and still a kid, that's perfectly fine with me, i'll lower my level to suit you. If you're over that age and feel that i'm talking a little kiddish to you, then time to reflect though. You really can't expect adults to talk to kids serious stuff right?


6. I don't sound very linguistic nor do I look very much like it but I do have a slight flair for languages. I honestly wonder why too. I stopped reading books since P4, the first book I read after that was just 2 years back(Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code) but my languages aren't deproving.. I love learning new languages and i'm not repugnant to learning other languages. To me, everyone, every race and every human is equal. There's no such thing as a higher/lower language, no one should ever decide on that either. English, Chinese, Le Français needs further improvement....Thai, German, Japanese, Italian, Spanish will be next to explore.

Who's going to get tagged?? Here's the list:

• Garrie
• LC
• Haojun
• Shiyun
• Siya
• KT

Till later...

Updates

Yet another week has passed. Work is work, nothing much to blog on but currently i'm in the midst of doing up the recruitment advertisements for our district. Mostly done, what's left is submission for approval by the corporate marketing department. The next headache's going to set in soon enough in the upcoming week. The website's going to be a chore, there's no direction for me and sad to say, i'm no agent, i'm not exactly sure on how to go about promoting the district.

Anyway, gained some new insights this week. Attended their monthly meeting, got to gain first hand knowledge about their newest personal line product which i'm keenly interested to purchase myself. No agent is pursuading me to get anything whatsoever, I don't buy policies based on relationships, I make my decisions and purchase based on needs. It's really pointless to buy a policy just to support a friend or something but end up getting something worthless and financially draining. On this new policy, it's really quite a good plan for the whole family protection, maybe i'll just pay for it out of my own pocket.

It's orgasmic talking to sensible people and people who has their own perspectives. I finally managed to talk to one of the agents who was an ex-teacher on the prospects of teaching etc. Really grateful to her for sparing her precious time doing clarifications for me on this career pathway and even offering to help me check out on some other information which she's not familiar with. From the conversation, what I can conclude is that teaching is no longer teaching. A teacher has got to be a teacher, a friend, a coach, an administrator, a planner, an organiser and the list continues. Gone are the days school ends at 1pm; you must be glad to reach home by 6/7pm. And that's the reason she switched line to become an agent instead, she wants more time for her family and herself. I fully empathise with her, I may be working temporarily now but I do feel the strain of a routine 8-6 job. Currently, I don't even have enough time for myself or do the things that I want to. Now then....who wants to get a policy from me?

For those curious about my previous post about the hospital issue, that's my grandmother in hospital due to stroke. No need to probe or do subterranean whisperings. So ended up having to go down hospital every now and then after work to talk/check/liven up her spirits. It is also during such trying times that you see the nature of the human heart, in short, there are the stayers and the deserters, people with no concept of priority. But thankfully, she's now back home and I suppose she's on the road to full recovery. The other day I went down to check on her, it was the 17th day after that fateful day. She managed to get up from bed, walked to the living room, sat down, crossed her legs, stood up, walked back, button her own shirt, lied back on the bed. Simple tasks aren't they? Try picturing someone who can't move an inch 17 days before, that was a touching scene. She has the willpower to live on, and it's up to people close to her to edge her on.

And of course, how can we forget about food? Some fresh updates and news.

We went back to the Kirin Restaurant opposite our office again. This time armed with Roger. Instead of the usual trio, today we went as a quad. Tried some new dishes and this is nice, something like fried tofu skin. There're scallops inside, very crispy.

Ribs...common fare in dim sum. Not bad either but as usual Jane doesn't know how to appreciate such delicacy.

Roger's a big eater. Look at the difference in size of plates of his(on the left)and ours.

Something famous from the Tanjong Pagar market. Accolades from Channel U. Tried and tested by me. No good! The only taste available is on the outside with the red bean paste and the peanut powder. On the inside, it's plain plain and more plain. Try munching on pure ice. Tasteless, an apt description for this. I won't try it again though. Costs S$1.50. I definitely prefer any other ice-kachang from any dessert stall.

I also finally entered into a new arena for food at Maxwell Food Centre. We walked 1 big round when we were going there but on the return trip, it's freaking near!! Like just 2 roads away?? Anyway, got to try the supposedly famous Fish Slice Noodles. Hmm...maybe the freezing cold air-conditioning in office numbed my taste buds...accolades aplenty but to me it tastes average? Well, one man's meat(food) is another's poison.

Till then....

Languages

My Hokkien is as good as my grandmother's Mandarin;
My Hockchew is as good as my grandmother's English.

Office: A Brief Introduction

As promised to Suihar, let me do a general introduction to my workplace at AIA Tanjong Pagar. And just to clarify my jobscope again, i'm no agent! Some pictures with some descriptions, hope that would suffice.

Early morning at the office, SP-Jeffeury district office. No one's around just yet except for me and the secretary.

My workstation. I get to use 2 laptops, 1 dopod, another laptop in my boss' office and 2 standalone desktops.

My tablet and my dopod(I wished...)

This is an adult's fridge!!! Children under age of 18 please do not intrude.

Meiyan and I opened a bottle to celebrate the 'non-arrival' of our bosses.

I believed I mentioned there are brothels just below my workplace. This is just 1 of them. Those with the red lanterns/red words. Keong Saik is a unique blend of decency like the coffeeshops, high-end hotels as well as office buildings and indeceny such as pubs, ktvs, massage parlours etc.

Bored again...someone disfigured my 'Angel Pig'...so the blu-tack took a different form this time.

And most definitely, never forget about food when you visit my blog. Finally managed to try the famous 'Wanton Noodles'. Got to read up on the newspaper article pasted right at the window pane. This wanton mee is famous!! Voted Top 5 Famous Wanton Mee in Singapore by the Straits Times. Well, it sure lives up to it's name. For me, I believe the essence of wanton mee lies in the noodles. The chef has got some real skills and good technique. The noodles are really smooth and like what we usually say: "very Q" or "springy". The char siew meat is unique too, made of up lean meat. Nice blend..definitely not the normal type of dry char siew we usually get outside at hawker centres. This wanton mee is good. Costs a mere S$2.50. Foong Kee Restaurant is the place.(6 Keong Saik Road). Wanton mee lovers, you got to try this!

Till then...