didgeridoo man, and passer-bys

when night falls

a day of orange lanterns, national geographic and sushi

A friend wanted to eat Vietnamese food, so off we went to Harbourfront to visit the Orange Lantern Vietnamese Restaurant. Well... did consider Pho99 (the one that Jade Seah went to for the show 'Real Deal for Good Deal') but it doesn't open on weekends apparently. It was then a toss between Yummy Viet and Orange. Yummy Viet is at Smith Street but it was raining, and after that basically nothing much to do at Chinatown. Moreover, both of us haven't try Orange Lantern before, so it was decided to go orange. It's a halal joint, so muslim friends now have an alternative to visit. The restaurant itself somehow reminds me of Thai Express. Not sure why! Haha.


didn't get any of these


decor, inside the restaurant


imperial rolls


inside are normal spring roll fillings


My friend ordered something un-Vietnamese (imho). Tomato based stewed beef noodles! Maybe it's a French influence?


stewed beef noodles


interesting dip for the stewed beef (plum powdered salt? can't taste the plum 'coz the salt very salty!)

There plum powdered salt given for the stewed beef. Interesting! Yup, a little of those did enhance the taste of the beef!

As for myself, how can I visit a Vietnamese restaurant without trying their pho?


pho bo (beef noodle soup with beef balls, beef slice and beef brisket)


yummy tender beef slice


Somehow, I can't find beef brisket inside my bowl! Haha! But I think those thinly sliced chewy stuffs must be it! The normal beef slices were quite tender, so that was likeable. The soup was clear and light tasting, and flavourful. Not intense, but still nice. Eat it all, with Thai basil and fresh beansprouts, provided as garnishes.


Thai basil


After lunch, we walked around Harbourfront and eventually Vivocity. Some event was going on at the ground floor. Apparently got some football cups on display. Hahaha, if not wrong, I think people who subscribe to mio EPL channel will get a chance to have their photos taken with these championship cups?


football stuffs


After walking enough (that would be when our feet demands to be rested), we retreated to National Geographic Cafe, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds in Vivo. Very dark decor, furnitures with characters and very explorer like atmosphere.


table decor that you can buy


cappucino mocha


vanilla milkshake


chocolate truffle


Went over to The Central, and after bouts of walking (in our futile attempt to feel better after eating all those high caloried stuffs...), we went over to Liang Court to browse at Kinokuniya. Found an interesting Japanese conversational (English-Japanese) phrase book, that was simple to understand (with romanji) and situational use, and is fully illustrated, like a comic book. Imported from Japan, and hence hefty price-tag! About close to SGD$50! There was also an illustrated book on Japanese etiquette, which I browsed through for 10 minutes. Keke. Probably gained SGD$40+ worth of read time? :P

Didn't think I could eat somemore for dinner, but how to resist the call of sushi? Especially after being in a Japanese bookstore?? Haha! So, for dinner, we were at Tampopo.

My friend had zaru soba and clam soup. While I had my mini nigiri sushi.


zaru soba


clam soup


mini nigiri sushi


maguro, with such pretty color~


yummy fatty salmon~


It sure felt like a foodie's trail where the agenda is to eat and eat and eat the whole day long! :P

nightshots

Bored to bits.. so went out to take in the night scenaries + practise taking some night photos using my compact camera. Shaky hands is a bane to nightshots! Most of the settings was like 1 sec exposure and @ ISO 200-400.



@7.24pm


@7.27pm


@7.29pm






slightly over-exposed with 1 sec exposure n ISO 400




building next to Merchant Court Swissotel (hmm... is this the hotel? hahaha)


another building



see the ledge.. that's where i placed the camera to take one of the shots above.. picture #5





Actually, the main idea is to go and take a look at the man-made sakura trees. But quite dissappointing.. there were only like what.. 4 trees?! I thought it would be like one whole stretch.. ha ha ha...


man-made sakura trees


closer inspection...



macro mode


How? Can pass or not?

weekends special

Clarke Quay and Central is fast becoming my most frequently visited place... (heh, simply because I have a bus service to go back to CCK from Clarke Quay station..)


riverside view in good daylight


was walking along this stretch because I alighted one bus stop tooo early..


taken from the bridge towards Central


Had lunch with Gina at Billy Bombers (1-for-1 special) where you can order from a choice of 3 main courses, and get the lower valued one for free. We had the seafood paradise spaghetti($13+) and fish n chips ($16+).


fish n chips


seafood paradise


root beer to go along, but expensive siah @ $5 per bottle.. tsk tsk


gina with her $3.90 refillable coke (not that we refilled any.... who can drink so much coke anyway ?!)

Then we decided to go retro and take some black & white or sepia toned pictures...


gina supposedly doing her own things (but of course everyone can see this is a posed picture...)


old mini tabletop jukebox

Then Florence joined us for tea. But of course after we went round Central looking at the shops... Found a new shop in there... that sell Cosplay costumes. Happening! It's not open for business yet I think but someone was inside trying out the stuffs, probably for the Cosplay gathering that they're having today at the atrium of Central.

After following the girls around looking at shoes and clothes, we had to rest our tired feets. So it's tea time at Azabu Sabo.


coffee with sugar n milk


dainty looking cup and saucer for the coffee

And desserts!

hokkaido hotballs with chocolate ice-cream and almond pieces


vanilla softie with sweet potato at the bottom


florence's pick.. something with everything inside plus lots of jelly!


Florence, looking amused at me snapping her photos


Next, of course, more shopping! We hopped on to Vivocity to squeeze bodies with a few thousand more people there. Ahh.. how I miss the quietness of Central... anyway... We visited National Geographic, looked inside Tangs, poked our noses around in some Forever 21, Crocs... and then, of course, dinner time.

We went to the British pub, Queen & Mangosteen.


whitebait


crab cake


lamb


mushroom risotto


cambridge burnt cream (creme brulee)

Here's a bit of the history behind the Cambridge burnt cream.


second hand fork?


superthick napkin


nice coaster


Pimms lemonade (tasted like soda water...)


many faces of Florence, the willing model but the lighting's not that great.... ok ok, my skills no good! But then again, doesn't this have a 'magazine' kind of feel?


smile~