Joyce and I went to Marina Bay Sands on the 11th September 2011 because it was a rather special day for the both of us, and I wanted to go to the Skygarden for the first time. I selected an expensive restaurant just to commemorate the occasion, and at the same time try out the kind of food they serve at such places since we won’t be going to such restaurants often.

The restaurant we chose to go to, or rather, I chose to bring her is Hide Yamamoto, which is a celebrity chef dealing with Japanese Cuisine. It is indeed an expensive place when one piece of fatty tuna sushi costs $20.00, hence we didn’t order that. Here are the things we did order:

The Califonia Roll King Crab, Avocado came in six pieces and tasted really delicious. The avocado was a good mix with the king crab and we even finished the ginger slices that accompanied the dish. The cost was 20 dollars.

Next, the Assorted Squid Hotate Oyster Mushroom (It’s not featured in their pdf menu so I cannot remember the exact name) was served. The hotate (scallops) is very nice as the sauce is delicious. The oyster mushroom was great too. This dish costs $25.

Subsequently, the “Grilled KUROBUTA Jowl and Romain Lettuce
Champagne Vinegar MISO Dressing” was brought to our table, and it tasted great as well. The dressing for the food made it great and covered the raw lettuce taste. As a result, I actually ate some of that lettuce. This dish costs $30.

When we saw how little food arrived after the previous dish, we called for an additional “Cha-Shu Soy Ramen” with an additional “Flavoured Egg” so that we wouldn’t be too hungry. The broth tasted clear. It was a good bowl of ramen, but the both of us still felt more satisfied with the Nantsuttei one. This dish costs $26.

Overall, we left feeling not hungry but not full either. The food didn’t taste exceedingly delicious for the price, but the ambiance was great. It is a nice way to celebrate the occasion though.

When we left, however, there was this old man with balding hair sitting opposite this young china woman. And then we wonder, is it true love or some mistress? We’ll never know, I suppose, but if they are willing parties, who are we to comment.

We then went up the Skypark, which offered a breathtaking view of the surroundings. In my opinion, the Singapore Flyer just pales in comparison, both in terms of height and in terms of range. In your little capsule on the Singapore Flyer, you cannot see far given your limited height. Since the skygarden is on top of a tall building, one can see the surroundings better.

At the top I gave Joyce a handmade card and a nice box of chocolates. She eventually shared half of the chocolates with me just so that I can try the chocolates.

Nice date completed!

The Online Citizen’s FB page posted a short note about female Chinese Nationals coming to steal Singaporean men, claiming that they don’t have family and friends to care about hence are able to dedicate their time more to the Singaporean men. Or that they dress to kill while Singaporean girls dress casually in slippers and t-shirts and what have you.

I thought the discussion that followed was a little funny. There were many stereotypes and stuff. There were xenophobic discussions on how “Foreign Trash” were coming to steal our husbands and stuff like that. Another comment talked about how Singaporean men think with their small heads and not with their big heads hence they end up with China wives. Or how China wives contributed to the divorce rates. Or how the Singapore government should do something. I was thinking, how?

And then someone made a very good point. We are also losing Singaporean females to the ang moh expats. Does it make any sense if we substitute China women with ang mohs in the above paragraph? Somehow the situation seemed to change. So women think with their small heads too even though they “don’t have” one literally?

The thing is that we cannot blame anyone for “stealing” our husbands or wives or stuff like that. In the first place, there are unions of citizens from different countries that work out pretty well, and did not begin due to one of them being a third party. It is just that we have grown to hate foreigners due to our sudden foreign flood gate policy, such that we would seek solace in pointing fingers rather than deciding.

Besides, if the guy leaves you for a China woman when you two are already married, then that guy is a jerk anyway. Hence he doesn’t deserve you. Not all Singaporean men just lust after women. Many of us have emotional needs too that lust cannot fulfill. And many of us are nice people who are very different; men who don’t mind that you have friends and family; men that know marrying you means marrying an entire family.

It’s just whether you meet the right guy at the right time.

The NJ gang decided to meet up at least once before Zong Yao flies off to the US of A to begin his work at Microsoft. It would be at least a year before we would all meet up again since air tickets are not exactly cheap, plus when you start working, you can’t be taking leaves all the time for long flights back, not to mention one would probably plan quick holiday trips? My colleagues have already gone on getaways one after the other, going to places like Hong Kong, Hong Kong (cause there’s two of them) and soon Hong Kong (cause there’s a third) or Taiwan and Korea.

Since two among the five have been to this Korean BBQ place called 2 Day 1 Night Soju Bang that is along Tanjong Pagar Road. Take the MRT to Tanjong Pagar MRT station and follow the map shown above. It is a short 10 min stroll and there is a queue when we arrived. You can leave a name (no prior reservations) when you arrive at the location, so do get someone to go some time earlier. You will only be allowed in after a prior number of guests of your group have arrived. In our case, 4 out of 5 of us were there so they allowed us to enter.

On first glance, it is like a normal shop house setting. The furnishings are old and simple. It is like an olden shop house. There is a flat screen TV playing Korean Music Videos and the songs played over the speakers are totally out of sync. It is as if the TV is muted and they are playing tracks on a separate system. The walls are plastered with the posters of my Korean Artistes, even those endorsing a particular brand of soju.

Soju Bang is a place with a lot of meat. I just ate meat all the time. Beef, pork and chicken. You have a metal plate lined with aluminium foil where you can cook the meat. The plate is slightly tilted with an opening at the end to allow the oil from the meat to flow into a metal container where it will collect. The wait staff changed the aluminium foil quite frequently at the beginning; at the later stages, the aluminium foil got a little black before they changed; this is probably because the other tables need cleaning up to receive new customers and hence they don’t have enough manpower to keep changing the foils.

There’s no photos cause it is just all meat and I don’t have a camera phone. At the end of it all I took the long mushroom thingie (Jing Zhen Gu) and put some marinated beef over it. As the beef cooks, the sauce leaks out onto the mushrooms, cooking it nice and flavourful. It’s the best way to eat the mushrooms imo.

The damage amounted to $22 per person, which is quite cheap considering that it is a buffet and you can take as much meat as you like. The ambience isn’t exactly great as the floors are oily, the tables are oily, your face gets oily. Whatever you have exposed is oily. Your shirt gets smoked and there’s a lingering smell with the oily and dirty feeling you get as you make your way home. But the food is good, just that if you are not a meat lover then this is probably not the place for you. And oh yeah, I did put on weight! Yay.

I thought it was rather amusing to see what kind of search terms that people use in search engines that end up on my site. Sometimes I am surprised, other times I am appalled. Like the number of times I see the word “upskirt” or “downblouse” leading to my site simply because I once did a post where I talked about it in a professional manner, probably to chastise it or something.

So here are a list of search terms that I thought is interesting to share, and some of my views if I have any on them; mostly to help subsequent people who come this way.

1. I never meet her at the bus stop

Like huh. Why would that ever come to my blog?

2. ia ntu interviewing non interviewing

From what I have heard from my NTU friends, it is a mix of interviewing and non interviewing, depending on the company involved; this is true, at least for Engineering.

3. national service enlistment for girls in singapore

It is not a requirement for girls to enlist into national service in Singapore. However, girls can choose to sign up as regular soldiers.

4. qualifying english test answers

Whatever made you think that there were such things? Who is that pro enough to remember the passages and composition questions?

5. which terminal at changi will sq222 arrive at?

Come on please check Changi Airport’s website instead. It’s free and it is more accurate. No blog is that boliao to keep updating flight timings when there is a website for that already!

6. estimated psle difficulty level 2011

-_-”

Joyce and I went to Bakerzin for a meal last Tuesday, which was a public holiday thanks to the Hari Raya celebrations (Yay for being a multi-racial multi-cultural society). We went there because of the $20 voucher that she bought from deal websites for the cost of $10. She bought two vouchers so we had a $40 off for the cost of $20.

We ordered two mains, the Japanese Curry Chicken Rice (top photo) (I’m not too sure the exact names, but it’s obvious from the menu which dishes I’m referring to if you ever take a look at their menu) as well as this Cheesy Seafood thingie (see next photo) (sorry bad memory for the name, but similarly, you can’t miss this).

We agreed that the Japanese Curry Rice thing wasn’t fantastic, so you can give it a miss (hence the name wasn’t important yeah). The rice was a little hard, though you would expect soft rice since its Japanese style yeah? The chicken was normal and the curry tasted like what I can get out of the NUS Arts Canteen. The cheese pasta dish, however, was much better. The seafood tastes nice with the right degree of moisture. The pasta was a little hard at the top since its baked, but the bottom ones were perfect. It is watery as there’s still some “soup” left in the bottom. A much better dish, although I think it’s nothing to exclaim over. It’s just better by comparison.

Joyce ordered the Iced Americano, which is essentially coffee with a scoop of ice cream. We didn’t really like it a lot; personally I thought ice cream float drinks taste nicer if it was fizzy drinks instead of coffee.

I ordered the Lime Sorbet drink which is a mix of some lime thing and 7-up/Sprite (don’t know which one) with a scoop of ice cream. I liked the slight sour taste of the sorbet, and when mixed with the drink itself produced a very refreshing and distinctive taste which the both of us enjoyed very much. She was the one who ordered the better dish for the food, and I was the one who ordered the better one for the drink, so we joked that we should just let her decide on the food while I decide on future drinks. Haha.

For dessert we had the Oreo Cheesecake which was really good imo. Joyce makes very good Oreo Cheesecakes too; they have different styles and both taste superb. For this one the oreo forms the crust mainly (top and bottom), and for hers, the oreo is also mixed into the cheese cake portion. I think Bakerzin really makes good desserts.

The Raspberry Panna Cotta was something else we also ordered. It’s like a milk pudding that tastes great. It is not like the milk pudding I had in taiwan; this is more “sticky”. Both has its merits!

In all, I felt that people should be going to Bakerzin more for it’s desserts rather than the main course. Their desserts are the main draw; eat the main courses if you’re lazy to find another restaurant.

And to end off this blog post, this is what Joyce wrote on the Panna Cotta plate.

As with all new transitions, my blogging capacity always drops once something new begins in my life that takes up a significant portion of my time. Last year it was the dreaded FYP that killed off the time, energy and joy that I derived from blogging my hearts out in a single setting. This time it was the starting of my career, my job, that did it. Although I had more time than FYP, that’s for sure, but the laziness you get when you transit just simply took over.

And why did I emphasize on a single setting? Somehow I found out that if I had left my blogging halfway to go grab something to eat whilst watching television (like my fish head curry post yesterday), the mood to blog would be gone and I would just conclude haphazardly. The post would then look as though it was done by some retard who just simply couldn’t write / have any talent for writing; not that I can boast of having any.

But all these should change. Should. I’m hoping that I would start blogging more about the places I have been or the food that I have been eating. It doesn’t help that I’m camera-less when I am out due to the nature of my job requiring me to lug a non-camera hand-phone around. Pictures just simply paint a thousand words.

It does help when you found someone who will accompany / bring you around places. Or simply put, it is not fun to go out alone to eat, so having someone there that wants to go out with you really opens up a myriad of opportunities in terms of dining. Joyce and I would be going to Nantsuttei (again cause we really loved it), massage (no photos, duh, rolls eyes) and then Bakerzin tonight cause she got the voucher from a deal site. I usually wait until she uploads the photos on Facebook before downloading them for this site, so you would have to wait for any of such posts.

Deal sites have been helpful in saving money (or not). In a way if you get really good deals, you can have your meals cheaper ($9.80 for a 12 inch pizza in a shop that doesn’t appear in all shopping malls!) and with better ambiance too. But on the other hand, one might buy something that is more expensive than their average meal prices simply because it is in a deal manner. I don’t mind, really, since sometimes we would get to try out many new things that we wouldn’t have been able to try. Besides, we get to enjoy time together, so it makes it all worth it.

But honestly, deal sites help give you ideas on where to go and what to do on dates. If I asked the guys to kee chiu (hands-up) if they have had trouble thinking of where to go on a date and what to eat, I guess almost all of us would have to raise our hands. Somehow we just suck at such things. In my JC gang, we needed many rounds of conversations before deciding on a single outing. As a result, we don’t meet up THAT often.

However deal sites are so abundant in ideas that it is as if there’s a thriving community of dating experts giving you tips on where to go and what to eat! Of course, do not subscribe to just one. I have had Groupon, JuzToday and some other sites like VoucherWow (if I remember correctly) send me daily mails on what deals there are. There are other sites though. Sites like insing.com does provide deals from time to time. I saw a hotel hi-tea buffet deal for UOB cards (yay to my new UOB One Card) that’s half price, so you pay about $44 per pax for the meal (or is it $44 per couple, I forgot). I didn’t buy it because eventually I forgot about it until the time went off. Luckily though, the girlfriend did say that the seafood selection during Hi-Tea is so much lesser than the dinner one, giving me some comfort of not snagging that deal.

Let me know if you learnt something new about me in this post. Somehow after changing my dp, only one additional friend realized something new came up in my life. Perhaps I’m just too boring to read huh?

I went on a date to eat some Fish Head curry last Wednesday because I had a craving for it on the previous Sunday (which is coincidentally, Singapore Curry Day). You got to admit all those curry photographs they posted on Facebook were really good to look at. It seems that you cannot go wrong with curry in our little nation.

It had been a long time since I had fish head curry, so I wanted to enjoy myself eating it. I couldn’t forget the taste I had of the previous fish head curry that I ate, and I wanted to satisfy my craving. Joyce had went to google to find out the different places that we could go to eat Fish Head Curry, and this site recommends a place on Beach Road (see inserted map) called the Coral Village Bistro.

You cannot get lost, for after you exit from Nicole Highway mrt station, you take the overhead bridge where you can go over a main road, and that’s the road where you have to walk along to find the place. It isn’t exactly very accessible since the circle line isn’t used by many people still, so considering default main mrt lines, it is inaccessible. Ok skewed logic but then less people would find such an area if they didn’t explore around.

Here’s the Indonesia Fish Head Curry. It was good to satisfy the craving, and the fish is great too, but somehow it is just missing a little something. Joyce says a little more spiciness would be good. I guess so, and maybe a little more sour taste? I guess this isn’t exactly a great place, else it would have had more people. When we left, we were the only customers there, and not to mention that they do not accept credit card for bills lesser than $50. Who takes out $30+ for sure all the time?

There is a nice Korean shop that sells stuff from Korea opposite the concourse, and you can find many nice biscuits and packaged pastries there.

All in all a nice time exploring the place, and decent food was provided. What can I ask for more?

I haven’t been running my usual training with the AFEs since I fell sick last week and got so feverish that I thought it best not to over exert myself lest I fall sick again. Hence it had actually been more than a week since I actually ran and trained myself.

Running began at my house as I met Chubang at the main gate of my condo. We ran all the way along the MRT track to Boon Lay to meet up with zai sir and the three of us proceeded to run towards Pioneer MRT and head towards NTU via the Pioneer road entrance.

We ran an entire round round NTU, from the Pioneer Road entrance up to the Jalan Behar entrance to NIE where the live firing area is. I could hear the live firing going on and it sure brings back memories. Up the stupid NTU slope and then down slope all the way past the Chinese Heritage center, hall 4 and hall 1 and finally ending at hall 2.

After plotting the route on runkeeper, they estimate it to be 9.49km. A good run, a little slow since there’s up slopes that are so insane, but I had a great time. I sweat a little too much but I guess I felt happy sweating it all out.

I went to Everything with Fries a few days ago on a Friday, just to try this restaurant out since a couple of my friends have already tried it, and it is supposedly good and cheap, so there I was at the Holland Village outlet.

A few things to say before I put up the photos of the food as well as my comments. The car park is a killer. It is very hard to find a car park slot on Friday in Holland Village, so be sure to have lots of time to spare if you are intending to park there. Once you exit from the car park, with the food center to the left, turn left and walk in all the way and you will see “Everything with Fries”.

The Vanilla Milk Shake is good. Personally I always pick the Vanilla Milk Shake whenever I see it in different restaurants, although I was also deciding whether to choose the Butterscotch one instead in Everything with Fries. My date chose the Strawberry Milk Shake and according to her it is a little too sweet, and that it is perfect when you mix one mouthful of the Strawberry Milk shake and one mouthful of the Vanilla Milk Shake. The milk shake damages about $4.90++.

The Wild NZ King Salmon is super delicious, in my opinion. This is what my date chose, which is why it’s filled with salad instead of fries; a healthier choice. The salmon literally melts in your mouth; it’s that soft. I would have wished I ordered that as well. Damage: $18.90++. Super awesome

The Battered Fish Sandwich was so-so. Two mushroom slices with delicious cheese below the first bread, but the fish that is in the center isn’t that nice. I don’t feel shiok eating the battered fish, and in my opinion it pales in comparison with the ones in Manhattan Fish Market. Damage: $13.90.

The ambiance in Everything with Fries isn’t great. Voices bounce off the walls and it is just so noisy. It doesn’t feel like a good place to sit and chat for some time. In a way it just felt like a place where you eat and then leave. Haha. Guess I wouldn’t be coming here anytime soon unless it is some gathering, of which I would probably recommend somewhere else.