Dinner

Dinner by a waterfall. It's chilly in Bandung. Our dinner place has
outdoor fires! We could have roasted marshmellows!

Bak Kwa

So... There is an outlet at terminal 1, guess who didn't have to trek
down to Chinatown? :) it smells lovely here by the way.

Travel Essentials

Ok this is absolutely the last dilly-dallying I'm going to do on my blog before I head out for my trip.

Only because it's a hoot.

We are visiting old family friends in Indonesia and my dad bought 4 or 5 kg of bak kua for his friend (pretty sure that's singular, not plural).

Apparently they like bak kua a lot! Either that or my dad is overdoing it.

Me, I'd just buy from my beloved Bee Cheng Hiang, but my dad trekked down to Chinatown twice - once to order and then to pick up his order from Tan Teck Guan.

:) Ta Ta For Now!

Travel Momentoes

Clockwise from top-left: Brother's Cafe in Hanoi (all you can eat, under the night sky and twinkly lights!), SecondTimeAround in Boston's Newbury Street (scored a nice white bag there), Massachusetts train tickets 27 July 2006, and name card of a driver who I think I booked to ferry Feli's wedding guests around the day of the dinner.

I'm in the middle of packing for my trip.

Flight departs in 5 hours!
Clothes, toiletries, money...

So there I was putting my ruppiah into one of my old wallets when my fingers pulled out a few cards from a back compartment.

Delightful! Remnants from past trips, like a little travel time capsule.

I slipped them back in again.

Now to gather new memories.

Putu Mayam

Imagine if my grandfather had never left China.

(a) I would not have struggled through Chinese classes in school

(b) I might not be able to appreciate dory in miso soup, mee siam and eggs benedict.

(c) Then again, maybe my cooking might be better.

But I am quite sure I wouldn't be enjoying putu mayam either. My mum knows I like it and brought some back today. Literally sweet...

"noodles", fresh grated coconut and orange-coloured sugar. Best eaten with fingers.

Food for thought

Today is such a hot day.
And because I have some time, there will be lots of photos in this post.















Ain't this a pretty picture? I'm so proud of it ;)

Have been wanting to tell you about a beautiful little restaurant that has the best street view I've seen in Singapore.

I've spent many hours while on holiday enjoying museums and cafes and street views, and this place gives me the same happy feeling. (As you may know, I love love love trees and cafes and hot chocolate and cobbled streets.)

Introducing - Food for Thought.



















It's on Queen Street, a short walk from Bras Brasah station, in the civic district. It's a quiet street so there are few vehicles and mostly locals and tourists walking by, cameras in hand or slung around their necks. Some people hurry by. Others stroll while admiring the old buildings along the street and still others stop to take photos.

Like so:












I love the decor, like the glass bottles strung up like fairy lights on the ceiling.

Any place that makes photos more magical or funds worthy enterprises deserves to be visited more than once.

I like to sit by the window and read a book while sipping a cool drink.













A giant bunny hovering by is fun to watch, too.
Rabbit!, squeal the children, happy to use a word they know.





He walked on, oblivious to the rabbit above him.







Whee!

P.S. How could I forget a food shot?
The food's decent, not earth-shattering, but a place as pretty as this is satisfying enough for me!

Photographers - Mikkel Vang & Paris Whittingham

It wasn't planned but I realise I've spent the last few posts talking about food.

So here's a link to some beautiful shots.

Mikkel Vang
I liked the sense of adventure and beauty in the photos.
I got to the website via a beautiful post on inchmark which also left me feeling rather inspired and in the mood to grab my camera and create something! I will be overseas the next two weekends and will try my best. Whee! I can't wait!

Paris Whittingham
Here's another website, this time from a NY-based photographer who writes about the love stories, like proposals, that he captures discreetly on tape (commissioned work, of course). I've always liked to read stories of people's lives. Although it does seem a little risky to pay someone to capture that special moment when the girl might possibly say no, yah?

Enjoying this work-free weekend loads...

Mee Siam

If it's Saturday, it means some soul food for lunch.

The in-house chef whipped up Mee Siam.

I never have Mee Siam anywhere but at home. It needs to have a special taste, a certain combination...not to mention a generous helping of prawns, eggs and chives.

When I think of Mee Siam, I think of family gatherings with adults playing mahjong and children running around playing. Doesn't matter what time you decide to eat - the tomato-based sauce is heated up in a jiffy and voila, a warm bowl of Mee Siam is dished out. Mee Siam is one of those ultimate feed-whole-families-any-time-of-day kind of dishes.

So here's the humble set up:



















And if this isn't art, I don't know what is.

My Culinary Misadventures

Dinner when the regular cook is away










Vegetables were a bit limp.

Fried corn pork was ok, I thought. (but how wrong can you go with something out of a can, said my ungrateful brother. Hmph*, went I.)

* If you must know, I sliced the onion ever so carefully and tried to create some sort of a wok-hei taste with skillful stir-frying. Didn't work.

I thought the water in the pot looked too little, so I put in more... so the corn soup was bland. I had problems cutting the last bit of corn so after unsuccessfully trying to sever it with a knife...and then a chopper...(ever seen corn splatter on the wall?), I chucked the whole piece in.

Rueful is how I feel, but optimistic that I'll do better next time!
Let's remember that I do better at breakfasts...

Friday nite out with friends

The sweet taste of last night's prawn with mayonnaise is still a pleasant memory.























The new Parco at Promenade Station (love the new circle line....even if it its name is a blatant rip-off and a misnomer...) has surprisingly more shops than I thought it did.

It has been such a long time since I strolled somewhat aimlessly around a mall, chatting with friends along the way. These days things seem to always have some sort of end goal in mind - a habit of the highly effective people it may be, but it's tiring :)






















We walked and lingered and talked and shared.
We sighed and laughed and teared.
Thanks for the listening ears and sharing of lives, guys!

:)

Avocado shake

Just the thing to cheer me up (from the gloom of the work day).
Avocados, gula meleka, milk, ice, blend and voila, mum-made avocado shake.

Giant bunny

Was that Walter... or a close relative? (Ans: It was Walter.)


Suffice it to say for now that I had a lovely, sun-kissed afternoon.

Fireworks at the Helix

I tried out the 'fireworks' function in my camera at the launch of the Helix bridge.
It worked like a dream.
Now all I need is more fireworks! National Day, here we come.

(Miniature) Golfing Weekend

Godzilla meets Changi Airport

I played 18 holes last weekend. Phew.

Ok, it was miniature golf. In a large air-conditioned room. But still, it was tiring!

Lilliputt is the name of the place we went to, partly to recce for the upcoming summer camp programme. It turns out that it is also the venue for children's parties so there were lots of kids running around but fortunately there was enough space for everyone and we didn't have to wait long to try out the different holes.

Mini golf always sounds a little cheesy and amuses me no end.
Mainly because of a 1987 movie called Overboard in which the lead actors (kurt russell and goldie hawn in their salad days) developed a mini golf course. Love that movie!