Dempsey

I really quite like the new Dempsey. Yes it is atas and gentrified and somehow I just feel like I don't belong there, yet it gives a sense of calm and peacefulness. Set amid the lush greenery, the low-lying buildings create a sleepy village feeling. Only the parking situation and the expensive cars give away the demographics.

It was fun though. JW and I were at Barracks, the restaurant bistro in the House complex, which consist of a spa, restaurant and bar. Ecletically outfitted (think vintage meets MASH), the restaurant was pretty full for a Thursday night. There were no free tables and we had to sit at the counter (which was a kichen island and had 2 sinks fitted in it, yes house theme remember?) for the most part of our meal. We spied many celebrities (ok 3 but that's still many to me) and the food was surprisingly good. I didn't have high expectations for these new concept cafes, usually their food turns out s0-so with nice ambience and decor to compensate.

I had the Wild Mushroom Risotto, which was cooked to a nice consistency, with french beans (and not fava beans like described in the menu), tomatoes and of course mushrooms. It wasn't too cheesey (which is how i like it) and the veal sauce that was served with it complemented it well and cut the richness somewhat. Picture not very good below.

JW had the Ahi Taki Salad, which was seared spiced tuna chunks (very yummy and juicy) with avocado and arugula. I really liked the way the tuna was seasoned, definitely Asian touch with soy and ginger, and I don't know whether it was the size of the chunks or cut of the tuna but it tasted like really tender meat and not flaky like some cooked tuna, nor raw and fishy. The side of sweet potato fries were good too, tempura-fried and seasoned with sugar and sesame seeds. We also shared a Green Tea Tofu Tiramisu, which was alright, kinda grew on us haha. I thought the mascarpone cheese part would be substituted with some sort of tofu topping, but it actually was just sponge, with a piece of tofu and topped with mascarpone cheese. It's not as bad as I make it sound haha. But others have told me that the desserts here are great, will go back and try the recommended Chocolate Almond cake the next time.

I took a random picture at PS Cafe when Peirui and I had brunch. The nice setting of greenery and flowers always speaks out to me.

No Reservations

Caught No Reservations last night with FY and Evan. FY wanted to watch it for Aaron Eckhart and Evan for Catherine Zeta-Jones and me? I wanted to watch it for the cooking heh. It was a so-so show, just kinda brainless but with few good moments. Anyway, after watching the show, I really feel like I wanna move to NYC and/or cook good food! I realise I really like to watch cooking shows, no surprise that one of my favourite channels is Food Network haha, though I don't really watch much Discovery Travel and Living now.

But watching is one thing, doing is another. I doubt I'll have the perseverence to actually learn how to cook properly in a school, or apprentice in kitchens where a common sight is pots and pans being thrown at you by the chef. I guess I'll just stick to being super amateur hobbyist.

Stuff I Like

Yawn. Before I zonk out, thought I'd do a cursory post since I haven't done any in a long time.

To share some pretty sites I came across

Carnival & Co - A party planner/event venue/cupcake biz located in a house in Chip Bee Gardens (near Holland V). Great place from the pictures, my friend had a bachelorette party there recently where the programme was to make cupcakes. Sadly, I missed it. Would love to go and check it out one day.

Poppy - Think I've raved about it before already. Part of it is similar in concept to Carnival & Co, they do cakes and parties too in a very pretty venue as it seems from the pictures. Also in Chip Bee gardens. Difference is that they do flowers. Poppy started out as a florist in Tg Pagar, which is how I got to know about them. Damn pretty flowers, but also super expensive. Would love to get some flowers from here man. Always wonder whether it looks pretty only cos of the photography, but anyway, very inspired every time I visit this place.

Raindrops by Regina Spektor - An indie artiste, Soviet-born American, singing cute songs mostly accompanied just by piano. Guess that's what drew me was the simplicity and clarity of the tunes. I really really like Raindrops. Em posted it on her blog and now I'm on a quest to find that song, which can't seem to be bought cos it was an unreleased demo?? And whatever I found on the Internet is not the full version. Ahhhh...

Oyako Don - Made this yesterday and am very pleased with the results. A good one person easy to make meal. Yum.

White Roses - Got a cheap dozen at the market, sitting prettily on my dresser. I hope they last a few more days but they look pretty open already.

An Apple A Day Keeps The Doctor Away!

I'm soon going to be the proud owner of a new 20-inch iMac and a 4gb red iPod Nano! Woohoo!!! Can't wait.

HURRY UP AND SHIP IT TO ME!!

Drool.....

Kids Say The Darndest Things

It was little Chloe's birthday and we had bought her this cute pink Powerpuff Girls trolley bag which she had apparently been eyeing. When the door opened and she greeted us, she spied us trying to hide the present behind our backs and even before we could wish her happy birthday and give her her pressie, the first words that came out were, with a genuine matter-of-fact look on her face:

"But I already have a trolley bag!"

That little girl is so clever and cute I tell you. Heh heh heh. Apparently her grandma had bought her a smaller Barbie one recently to placate her. We burst out laughing and tried to convince her that this bag was bigger and better. She proceeded to zoom around the house dragging her bag, which was almost as tall as her, laughing and babbling while stoic lil' Nathan ambled after her.

Such cute kids.

A Thousand Words

I was looking at some professional wedding photographs online and was enraptured by the moments that the photographer managed to capture on film. The radiance and the smiles on the faces, definitely takes talent and skill. The photographer is pretty famous in the wedding circuit, Kelvin Koh of Lighted Pixel. My sister will also be using him for her wedding, hope her photos will just be as amazing.

some thoughts from it -

doing something you love for a living and the passion that goes with it

those moments in life that take your breath away simply remain in your memories unless they can be ingenuously recorded. but they are but a mere cross-section of your life, perhaps not showing depth of the past or future.

the casual shoots are actually more fun. everyday life immortalised. if only each day is lived like that.

A Great Weekend

Gosh am I tired or am I tired. Think this bag of ole bones can't tahan staying up late and back to back activities anymore. But that said, it was a fruitful weekend spent with friends.

I would like to leech of Peirui's blog entries on the movie we watched, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, and MAAD which we went to yesterday hehe, honestly, I think we felt the same way about the movie and MAAD. I'm glad we went to watch the movie, and we have to go watch the Thai one too when it comes out! MAAD was a tad disappointing due to the limited stalls but their quality was pretty good. I collected a whole bunch of cards so that I can check their websites out.

Anyway, had a good time on Friday catching up with the council peeps, in honour of the homecoming of our supreme leader hah. As usual, the guys outnumbered the girls and quite a few brought their wives/fiances/gfs along. Can't believe it's been ten years already. Crabs at Defu Lane Seafood Paradise was good, it was surprisingly windy despite being in the midst of an industrial estate. Had a late night chatting with FY until like 4+am (which must have been the latest I've been up in recent times lousy me).

Saturday was a pampering day, what with facial and a pedicure. Spent a nice evening with the girls at Pierside Kitchen watching the NDP rehearsal albeit the not that great food, and lack of fireworks. Apparently they've already done all the full rehearsals and the Sat one was like a last minute practice. The boats and choppers and planes were fun to watch tho. Great view by One Fullerton, of course would have been better if there were fireworks. We then karaoke-ed late into the night. Kbox isn't very good though I must say. Firstly, they gave me and Ruth this huge VIP room, which you'd think would be state of the art cos it's VIP right? Wrong. The bass was muted, the control panel tv screen tiny (in relation to the room) and we had to go really close to see what we were choosing. In the end, we asked to be moved to a normal small room haha.

Other than the movie and MAAD, plus catching up with Jules on Sunday, the highlight of my weekend was our long awaited cookout at Daniel's place. Silly boy went to google Aug 5 to see what important events we could celebrate and came up with the Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day of Croatia, which is apparently to commemorate the liberation of some city called Knin in 1995. Despite the difficulty of obtaining Croatian recipes, I'm glad he didn't persist with the original country Burkina Faso (I admit I've never heard of it until Dandan mentioned it). We had an aweseome time mucking around in the kitchen, doing stupid things like creating a backdrop of the Croatian flag on Dan's computer and posing for stupid pictures. We even found the Croatian anthem and attempted to play it before we succumbed again to the 90s music on Class 95 on Sundays, which was really really good and nostalgic. At one point, we even attempted to do the running man to Ditty. Hahaha. No, we didn't have much to drink. Some pics from the crazy night :)