Toonpaint

US$1.99 buys me this app. Gives great looking comic style portraits of people! Very tempting...

a Prince at Kings

This little price is rather shy. He refuses to let me carry him. The most I got was a hug and I had to bribe it out of him with a bowling ball!

it's called effort

Wished I could have got a picture of her carrying the bag. But I guess this will have to do. Loved how she matched the heel of her shoes with the colour of her laptop bag. Now, that is called effort!

Red Star

It's a old school dim sum restaurant where dim sum is pushed on push carts around the restaurant. We were charmed - until we saw the bill. $101 for 4!

That's the problem when we order without looking at the menu. Lesson learnt. The food was good but not top notch. I mean how fresh the dim sum is after being pushed round the restaurant for half an hour before ending upon your table. I thought the siew mai wan't that fresh, the skin was already a little soggy and stuck to the paper on the dim sum basket.

At $25 per head, I really don't think it was worth it!

it's man lace

I think I figured why I am obsessed with perforated apparel and accessories. Coz it is Man Lace!

Rather than wear prints, I think proferations are the perfect way to jazz up anything!

But I think I'll draw the line when proferations show the nipples.

Sapporo Ramen Miharu

I've heard lots of this restaurant and I've been waiting forever to go there. So when BFF suggested to meet there for dinner, it was a bonus! I ordered their Miso Tonkotsu Ramen. I think the version at Ichibantei was better. The soup base was a bit too salty, and I prefer the creamier version at Ichibantei. But I guess it's not an equal comparison coz this is a miso soup version. But other than that, the piece of char siew was a little underwhelming too. I wished it were more fragrant and tender.

Topped the meal with a Sapporo draft. Now this drink, after a long day at work, was a delight! It wan't too dry and sharp - just the way I like my beer.
Gyoza was a little disappointing. The skin were stuck to each other and the filling was rather empty... boo...
The bill came up to $55 for 2! Wow! I thought it was a little expensive.

a thick & creamy delight

Me and my self declared BFF finished dinner and were looking for a place to chill. That's when we stumbled on Laurent Cafe and Chocolate bar. I've walked by this place a few times and was really curious about going in so when this opportunity came up, it was perfect!

I ordered the Run & Raisins Hot Chocolate drink. Their signature hot chocolate, with a shot of rum and a dollop of whipped cream at the top. (the black thingy on the whipped cream is a raisin)

The drink was thick and creamy and totally shiok - if it were 0 degrees outside and snowing heavily. But in hot & humid Singapore, I guess it looses its charm a little. The drink plus shot of rum really warms me up from the inside. How I wished Singapore had the 4 seasons for me to enjoy this drink in the right environment!

Oriental Cheese Burger

I am a huge fan of the cheese burger. So on my second trip back to Freshco, I noticed that they have cheese burger in their menu and it's a no brainer - order it to try!

Well, this time round, it came with white rice instead of the yummy mushroom rice. I thought that the cheese burger was good! It was a less greasy but still juicy version of the Western Cheese Burger. But as I was eating, I felt that something was missing...
I think it's the shiokness of holding a burger in my hands, between 2 prices of sourdough buns and sinking my teeth into a thick juicy burger. But the version at Freshco is good nonetheless.

new shoes

It's the GSS and I hadn't bought anything nice for a long time. So I went down to Orchard with the objective getting me something. That's when I came back with these:

Lavorazione Originale soles no less... (googled it, apparently it's one level lower than their top of the range line)

Their iconic red box!

Double stitching.

Love how the stitching ends midway of the shoe. So this shoe is made from one large piece of leather and a smaller price. Not an easy feat!

It's actually a brown shoe. But under the yellow lighting of my room, it appears black.

This set me back quite a tidy sum. But I figured, with proper care, this can last me a lifetime and I guess it's a small price to pay for something that is will last me a long time!

Ebisboshi

At the top floor of Illuma is Ebisboshi restaurant. The unique things about this Japanese restaurant is the method of ordering food. Patrons are given a pen (that talks) and you are supposed to point on the menu, the item you want to order and then enter the order. Fun. But a fun way of ordering food didn't save the meal from being an enjoyable one.

I ordered the fried beef udon and clams combi meal. I it was the most substantial order among the rest of my friends. My unfortunate friends orders were minuscule. But my substantial portions of food were not great. The beef was tough and overcooked. Plus the whole dish was way too oily.

The clams didn't fair well either. They were almost tasteless and probable just added as an after thought to the dish.

I think the novelty of ordering food in the restaurant will wear off soon. They need to improve on the quality of food in order to retain customers. Otherwise, a fun way of ordering food will not draw people back.

You say Apple, I say Bees

It was Moses's birthday and we went to Applebees to celebrate!

When I was Syracuse, I also went to an Applebee's outlet, so I kinda knew what to expect. The most important lesson was that this is an American Restaurant, so portions will be HUGE and it's best not to order 1 mains for everyone.

We decided to order 3 mains and 1 appetizer. But only 2 mains and the appetizer arrived - the forgot to enter in our order of 3 cheese chicken pasta. But it was ok coz we were really full from the food that came.

The appetizer was a sampler of their (from fight to left) mini cheese burgers, fried shrimp and nachos with spinach dip. The cheese burgers were a tiny bit dry. But the fried ship was plump, juicy and really good! I found the spinach dip a tiny bit salty.

The best dish was the burger! It was a shiok combination of ground beef, diced tomatoes (ala Mexican style) and some flat bread. Yum!!! It was juicy and yummy!
The steak & chicken fajita was good too. But since the same dish at Chili's comes with mushrooms, I think Chili's wins for this dish.

One man's trash

I was walking to Amoy Market one day for lunch. I would pass by a stretch of shop houses. Normally I wouldn't walk in the sheltered pavement because it's narrow. But that particular day was extremely hot so I walked in the pavement to avoid the blazing sun. That's what I noticed this little shop along Telok Ayer Street.

What first caught my eye was some vintage posters displayed along the pavement. Then I looked in the shop and it was packed to the brim with vintage stuff! Photographs, clocks, lamps, menus, teapots, telephones... you name it, they probably have it!
But these things don't come cheap. A poster cost $200. I didn't have time to really explore the shop but I think it's hiding a lot of treasure, just waiting to be discovered!

a bloody slab of meat

Swenson's is having a 1 for 1 lunch promo. The whole company trooped down one afternoon for an impromptu company lunch!

I ordered the filet sirloin. What came was a very rare piece of meat! Sides of potatoes and steamed vegetables were disappointing too.

After the lunch, it started pouring cats and dogs. So we had no choice but to order dessert - the Swenson's earthquake of course.

at the Beach Road market

For someone who once was a regular, my friend was amazed that I have never set foot in the army market and the Beach Road market beneath it.

All I can say is that I keep my stuff in order and I don't have a need to visit there to get a M16 firing pin.

But when I had to ferry my friend to the Golden Mile complex across the road to catch the bus to Malaysia, we decided to pop into the market to have our dinner and boy was I pleased we did so!


There's this little Thai Chinese stall. As a rule of thumb, stalls with laminated newspaper cutouts or framed pictures of celebrities visiting the stall should be pretty good and this is no exception.

Ton Yam Soup was tangy and yummy!

Kang Kong was fresh!

Fried chicken was really satisfying and very well done!

Calamari was beautiful! Chewy flesh with crispy batter. Yum!

We also ordered a bowl of lamb soup from another stall. It was beyond fabulous! The lamb was fall-off-the-bone tender and the herbal soup was delicious! Pity the stall was closing and moving away.

The best thing: it's price! Everything cost us $35.

buy low drink high

Love their slogan!

Concept is innovative but be prepared to be surprised.

Think stock market. In the bar, there are screens with prices of drinks on it. Prices change with time, depending on how popular they are. For some drinks, prices go up as more people buy it. For others, prices go down as more people buy it. Fun concept! But not so fun when we received a bill of $18.50 for a pint of Heineken. The owner saw our surprised faces and acknowledged that it was an aberration in the system. So the manipulated the computer system and then the price went down to $10.50.
In the real world, that would be wrong at so many levels. But in beer market, it's just another night!

doing my part

It's been AGES since I last donated blood. So when I saw the mobile blood bank at Raffles Place, I told myself to go for it! It helps that my colleague and I did it during office hours too. Time off work! Actually, it wasn't really time off work coz I stayed late that day to finish up some stuff. And I digress again......

Apparently, we are not allowed to take videos of the blood donation process. But I could take pictures. The whole thing was over in a 15 minutes. The painful part was the queueing before the blood donation. And I don't know if it was psychological or because I didn't get much sleep that night or because of me losing 1 pint of blood. But the next day at the gym, I had trouble finishing my routine! But it's not stopping me from donating! Next appointment - September!

Boon Tong Kee

I think it is really tough to find a good place to eat in Orchard Road ater 9:30pm. That's when all the stores close and since the Orchard Road is a shopping mall belt, when the malls close, the restaurants in the malls also have to shut down.

So one day after a movie at Lido, we were stuck. Starving in Orchard at 9:30 with no food options. THat's when I thought of River Valley Road where a there's stretch of shop houses with eateries that open till late.

We decided on Boon Tong Kee. I haven't had that in ages. THey are famous for their chicken rice. Well, the chicken was good. Tender and the skin is so sinfully gooey and fatty and shiok as it slithers down my throat.

The rice is served in cute little pyramids.

Congee is just the way I like it!

Fried toufu was beautifully done. Crispy on the outside, velvety smooth on the inside.

and the oyster sauce vegetables was crunchy.

Last item was prawn omelette. Yummy fresh prawns and eggs! But I found it a little too oily.

That meal set us back $17.50 per person. I think it's pretty hefty. I guess it's the price I have to pay for a good late night dinner near town.

when life throws you lemons

We were traveling to Prakrow village in Takeo province. To reach the village, we got to cross this vast rice field where the fields stretch as far as the eye can see. (ok, I might be exaggerating a little bit) But the point is the field is freaking far from the nearest town/petrol station/mechanic.

So you can imagine our faces when the van we were traveling in suddenly stalled and refused to start up. We looked at each other, look at the vast paddy fields, then burst out laughing!
Coz when life throws lemons at you, well, it's best to have a good laugh! Well, that laugh really did us good! Thank God we had someone in our team with some engineering background (no it's not me). He suggested we all got off and push start the van!
So that's exactly what we did. If you watched Little Miss Sunshine, you kinda get the idea what entails in a van push start. The push start worked, we all rejoiced and jumped on the van and made our way to the village!

Pink!

Spotted at the Clarke Quay multi-story carpark. A pink motorbike complete with a Hello Kitty sticker on the seat. OTT? You bet it is!

are you man enough?

Little Thad is now walking around with his new pink & purple Hello Kitty shoes.

I don't think I can ever pull it off - the shoes and the head titled to the side pose for the camera.

Pink, purple with Hello Kitty and ribbons all over.