Vote for Your Favourite Waterfront Feast Blogger

There is a contest running and it's to vote for your favourite Waterfront Feast blogger contest, as part of the "Let the Feast Begin" series organized by omy.sg and Far East Organization. Here is the link to the contest if you're interested: http://contest.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin-waterfront/

What's the carrot? You may get to win a $50 voucher if selected! Woohoo!

Thanks and have fun reading!

Here's the omy coverage of the event:



And the vodcast:

the elderly and hygiene

One morning, as usual, was waiting for the bus at the interchange. There was one elderly lady who was waiting for the same bus. Then suddenly, she started clearing her throat. Sounds like a lot of phlegm stuck. Very soon, she was coughing and before I knew it, she was spitting out the phlegm onto the floor. Eeeek!

So, I went over to her and passed her a tissue paper. She looked at me and said, "谢谢". So I thought, "Ahh.. all is well." Then not long after that, she resumed whatever that she was doing, ie. started to spit onto the floor again. Saw that piece of tissue paper on the floor, with her using the tip of her shoe to move the tissue paper around to cover the spit on the ground.

I guess, old habits hard to correct afterall.

omy blogger event

Click here for more info on the event: http://blog.omy.sg/let-the-feast-begin/waterfront-feast/

First time participating in any blogger's event, hehe. A good experience nonetheless. A bit awkward in the beginning (feels almost like first day in school or first day at work) as there was absolutely nobody that I know of! But after a while, everyone made an effort to be friendly and we loosened up over drinks and food. Hahaa, seems like food IS the universal language after all!

Organized by omy.sg and Far East Organization, we were briefed on the restaurants and the things that we were supposed to be doing. There was a host from omy covering the event as well, so at certain point in time, he went around interviewing people for comments to be captured on video.

behind the scenes

The restaurants were very nice to us participants. Food although in sampling size, was still generous. Some even prepared another set just for photoshoot alone.

Mr Cameraman from omy team, 辛苦你了！

crowding around to get a shot at the food in good sunlight

The other bloggers were great fun as well. Irene, Bryan, Crystal, Ding An, the girl who doesn't eat fish nor drink alcohol (sorry, I forgot your name!) and the girl from sightsmelltaste (haiz, I also forgot your name!), and the younger generations on the other table (Kai Yi and the rest of the pretty and young girls).

at Cafe Iguana

We ate, we drank and we made merry!

eat and drink at Cafe Iguana

enjoying ourselves at Brewerkz

buffalo wings!

For more information and my take on the event, please click here.

comfort food

a bowl of hot porridge

roasted pork with crackling skin

That was my diet way back in the 1980s. Most of the time, comfort food may equates to childhood food. Sometimes, I'd have char siew instead of roasted pork. Depends on what was available that time. Sometimes there would be crispy peanuts to go along with the plain porridge.

distilled life

miniature liquor

investment climate

The share prices has been on a steady decline since last Friday and it looks like it won't be relenting anytime soon. Sadly, all my investment are affected as well. Only the Prudential investment link managed to stave off a major drop in value thus far, but partly that's because there's only 3 funds in there and invested value is small.

The ILP with GE are greatly affected with a drop of between 2-3K in value as compared to the month of May. Sharpest drop I've seen since October 2010.

baa baa

Went to Baa Baa Black Sheep at Bukit Timah Road with the gang. Busy joint. Small in size, crowded place. Expect lots of expats and... their kids in tow.

shop front

Similar to "The Fat Cat Bistro" at Jln Riang, whereby customers can order Indian food, Thai food and western grill from the 3 different food stalls within the same viccinity. Throw in affordably priced alcohol, and you have a winning formula. However, this place is self-serviced so there is a small difference between similar concepted place.

seafood phad thai

 
Lasting impression of this place? Cute and noisy kids.

bus ride to vivo

Took a bus to Vivocity after work yesterday to meet Desmond, Walton's agent. As usual, the bus was quite crowded. Somewhere midway, a couple who appeared to be in their mid-20s or so boarded the bus with a small baby carried by the young mother in a sarong slung over her shoulder. Another lady was with them, and she could be a relative. Luckily, they managed to get seats in the crowded bus. The child's father stood nearby. He was slim built and has tattoos on his arm. Soon, there was an empty seat behind the ladies so the man sat there.

Then, he started 'joking' around with his wife. He would say something (joke perhaps?) and grabbed his wife's shoulder length hair and pulled hard. Then the wife would get annoyed and would pinch/hit him back. Next, he'd purposely stick his fingers onto his wife's cheek/face/neck just to irritate her and she'd retaliate again. He'd laughed loudly when he was doing all his antics, and the lady who was with them would chuckle and say something like "gila" (Malay word for crazy). She seemed amused. There was once the man smacked his wife on her head, then she got irritated and threatened to throw away her diamond ring while she tried to smack him back. And then, he'd grab her fingers and she'd try to hit him. Imagine this going on while the man was at a seat behind his wife and his wife was still carrying the baby on her arms. There were few occassions when their 'jesting' with each other ended up with the baby accidentally being hit. When the mother became aware that the baby was accidentally hit, she told her husband, and he just raised his hands in the air and said, "Not me.. you were the one holding the baby!" Then he'll make faces and start the whole pinching/poking game again.

As the observer, I don't think the man's antics were endearing. It was more like endangering. Doesn't seem to care/aware about the child's safety. However, the mother of the child also allowed her husband and at times, even indulges his bad behaviours. Was it fun for them? It appeared so.

Pullman Bakery Curry Bun

deep fried curry bun @$2.50 per piece

curry potatoes

The curry was spicy but manageable, has a lot of gravy and somewhere inside the bun it'll reveal loads of potato cubes. Otherwise, it's kinda expensive for a curry bun.

momiji manju

Momiji manju or Japanese maple buns originates from Miyajima Island (Hiroshima). A type of traditional sweets. Though it's called buns, I think it taste more like our kueh bahulu but softer and with fillings. 

in its original packaging

with some instructions

azuki flavour

maple leaf motif sponge cake

red bean fillings that's not too sweet

Dinner @ Ootoya Orchard Central

Second visit for me and first time visits for my dining companions, Ms Chen and Ms Lim. We ordered set meals (chicken salad, deep fried sweet and sour chicken and grilled pork) and one ala-carte saba fish.

grilled pork dish with hijiki rice

closer view of the pork

Typical Japanese set meal with main dish, okazu (side dishes), rice and miso soup. The nimono (stewed dishes) was nice but the pickled vege (tsukemono) I didn't like. It tasted like a non-spicy version of kimchi and less tasty. The normal rice that night was a little bit too soft as well. But the girls liked their hijiki rice, so it ought to be good (or maybe everyone was very hungry!)

nimono

I had the sweet and sour chicken ('coz it was recommended by Wendy) and it tasted pretty much like 糖醋鸡. I can't recall if I'd eaten 糖醋鸡 before, but I reckoned this was how it'll probably taste like! The deep fried chicken was tender (unlike tori karaage) and coated with thick vinegared sweet sauce. The only downside was that it came with fatty skins. =P

yummy deep fried sweet and sour chicken

They do chicken dishes pretty well over here at Ootoya, and it was evident in both the chicken dishes that we ordered. Fragrant and tender. The grilled pork was slightly tough but not too extreme. The saba fish was nicely executed but the star factor, in my opinion is still the chargrilled chicken.

This place loves chicken, even in miso soup there's a fatty bits of chicken in it!

The place is quite popular (reservations recommended) and patrons can be seen queueing outside on a Saturday evening. Getting the attention of the service crew at times, could be quite challenging. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant dining experience thus far, at Ootoya and for now, there are promotions for various credit cards ranging from 10% to 20% off. UOB (10%), StanChart (15%) and ANZ (20%).

The pictures were taken with blackberry camera phone.

X-Men First Class

Watched X-Men First Class at Shaw Lido cinema. Digital movies are so clear! The seats at Lido are comfortable although the leg space could be challenging for people who are above 1.8m height or so. Saw a guy sitting with his leg crossed, and his shoes nearly hit the lady in front!

They showed Captain America's trailer prior and it looked pretty good! Expected a boring movie for X-Men First Class but it turned out pretty well. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender played the two leads; Prof. X and Magneto. James McAvoy looked pretty familiar... he was the faun in Narnia! Here's a link to that wiki page. Hahaa! Michael Fassbender kinda reminds me of Daniel Craig type kind of guy. Macho, and angsty.

The movie's flow was quite good. Everything seemed to fall in place nicely. The background and history of major characters are explained succinctly. The actor playing Banshee reminds me of Ron of Harry Potter! Must be that red mop of hair he has! He has some funny scenes as well. 

Enjoyable to see each mutant get discovered and showing off their powers. Beast was quite a surprise. Was pooh-pooh-ing his so called 'mutant' ability in the beginning ('coz it was really not impressive...). Only towards almost the end of the show, then he 'became' more like 'Beast'.

Enjoyable show.

brunch

It's time for our twice-a-year meet up with Wendy. Went to SOHO7 at Armenian Street. My first egg benedict!

tassie egg benedict

Had pressie too!

from Miyajima

rabbit charm!

Thanks Wendy!

geez

Looks like I've committed all 7 sins!

http://lifestyle.xin.msn.com/en/health/wellbeing/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4885783