Arrived

Arrived safely and got to watch three movies on board - The Last Station (which I had really wanted to see), Men in the City (Mannerherzen - which had several German actors I recognised, so I think it was some super cast) and finally, Inviticus. All of them were good, but the Last Station was excellent. The cast was all brilliant - there was not one bad actor in the lot. A must-watch. I have to say that I didn't get a better appreciation of rugby after Inviticus - it still looked like a bunch of people knocking each other over.

Also finished Predictably Irrational - which was brilliant.

Mom reports River is moping and whining. Poor puppy.

Pin and Dolly

Pin and Dolly
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Bye everyone. It's going to be a while before I see these two again.

Spending time at home

 

It's my last day in Singapore for a few months. I baked another batch of the chocolate banana cake I've been making (incorporating pecans) and also spent time with the animals. I went for facial and bought vegetarian food - look at the Scouty's adorable face. Who could not miss her - though she just tried to kill a bat.

Mom finished her beautiful new sweater - look at Amber admiring it. We also went to visit a neighbour yesterday. Thanks to everyone who called to say goodbye.

Dinner with the cousins

 

Dad organised dinner for some of my cousins tonight - it's been more than a year since I've seen them. I have a huge extended family so only a small proportion of cousins were there - we admitted we didn't know how many cousins we had in all. We aren't very close - but they're all very nice people and so it was good to see them again. I made more of the chocolate banana cake I made for dinner at Planetofsound and Imp's. They had liked it so I decided to make more. One of my cousin asked for second :)

M's birthday lunch

 

D, J and I went for M's birthday lunch today. M and WW came from trawling the stores to see if they could find Kaka but unfortunately could not find any. The hunt continues.

We went to Swensen's for lunch - the food wasn't fantastic and the server kept forgetting our food - but really we were there for the ice cream. It was very retro (though the prices weren't) - but the sundaes were good.

I baked M a sour cream coffee cake and she was very sweet to come over with part of the cake for us to try it. The recipe, from Baking Illustrated was really very good. I of course, decorated it with clowns, for M because M LOVES clowns :)

M brought us to a shop that makes personalised rock candy - it was packed.

Dinner at Planetofsound and Imp's

 

Dinner at Planetofsound and Imp's was fantastic as usual. Planetofsound made a gorgeous asparagus soup, a light and fresh pasta with zucchini and squash, mixed mushrooms and a spinach and pumpkin (and pine nut) salad. He also made his own guacamole and babagahnoush. We were all stuffed and had to roll away from the table. He even packed some home for me.

I made a chocolate banana cake to bring along this evening and it was from a good recipe which I should make more often. We watched a documentary on Iron Maiden whom knew almost nothing about - the band members just seem like such nice people!

Skinny Pizza

 

I went for lunch with D and D at Skinny Pizza this afternoon. It's a new place and I was a little hesitant to eat a pizza because planetofsound was going to cook dinner tonight. When he cooks, you want to save space for dinner.

The pizzas there were however really nice and not your usual pizza - they were really more taco salads and the vegetables were really fresh too. We had the wild truffle pizza and the spinach ricotta pizza and I had the cauliflower soup as well. Thanks for the good suggestion D!

I went to Border's afterward to pick up some books and then headed over to get some sour cream before going home.

Dinner with M

 

M and I went for dinner tonight at Raj - we ordered just the right amount tonight (two dishes is always too much). We then headed over to Mustafa. Look what I found in the biscuit aisle - APOLLO! Inflation has not caught up with Apollo - but neither M and I wanted to risk actually eating it.

This is part of my nostalgia drive - M and I went to a provision shop to try and find Kaka but we couldn't. Simian however found this post that suggests there was once a durian kaka!

We went to Bombay cafe where I had a fantastic drink called the Royal Falooda. It was really awesome!

Food

 

I went for lunch with someone whom I used to work with today - we went to a vegetarian coffeeshop in Joo Seng, and I had mock fish soup. The food there was good but the place had no AC and it was warm :) I did however see this lovely, sterilised ginger cat as we were leaving.

M and I had been talking about childhood snacks and we were discussing what we used to love to eat. Of course I posed the same question to Simian. Simian insists that there used to be a snack called Peanut Kaka - but M, her husband and I do not recall this at all. We're convinced he must have been sold some inferior, fake version since there was only ever CHICKEN kaka!

Simian then found this post and I was appalled to find out that not only had he not eaten (1) chicken kaka (2) xiao ding dang and (3) ice lollies. He's never played Old Maid or Snap either! Of course, this is the same person who only recently ate his first wafer ice cream and has never had an eskimo pie (incidentally, check out all the new flavours - I want eskimo pie!). I couldn't find a photo on the Net to illustrate this - but I actually have an ice cream man who comes round and sells it in the estate - I should take a photo before they can't be found any longer.

Dinner last night

It's funny when you read about an event you went to on a stranger's blog - but here is a link to dinner last night. Since M and I were sitting at the table where people knew my Dad, I figured I had to behave and not take photos of everything :) Now you can see the photos anyway - and even M and I if you look close enough.

The rye bread was really good btw.

Ian Wright Out of Bounds

Ian Wright Out of Bounds
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Dad was invited to an event with Ian Wright and asked if I wanted to go. M and I did so we went to the National Museum tonight for a dinner in the Salon.

First off, we realised that we had somehow been seated at the table right in front of the stage and that we were in fact, seated right next to Ian Wright. It also happened to be full of directors from Starhub which was a little weird.

Ian Wright spent very little time at our table - he went from table to table and took photos with every single person in the room. Granted the room was small, but M and I agreed that it is a very tough job.

He did mention Tuva though - and I got to ask him if Richard Feynman is still much revered in Tuva. Simian and I love this documentary (and Feynman) and we had read that Tuvans hold Feynman dear to their hearts because he brought Tuva to the attention of the outside world. Unfortunately it seems that if they do, they don't talk about it. Watch the documentary if you have the time - it's really great.

The food was based on his travels and unfortunately was very meaty. One of the ladies at my table kindly went and asked them to arrange for something vegetarian for me, so I got risotto, which was good.

Wings

Wings
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Look at the gorgeous wings.

Sunbird

 

A sunbird has decided that a piece of cloth on one of the trees in our garden would make excellent nest material. He or she has been flying back and forth all afternoon, trying to gather pieces from the cloth. I apologise for the dots - apparently my lens need to be cleaned.

Sunbirds are not related to hummingbirds - but they eat similar plants. As a result, they've evolved to look like each other.

Oatmeal tofu

Oatmeal tofu
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

Seven Sensations has an updated menu - and this was on it. The oatmeal tofu was fantastic. Of course Mom and I also had the yam soup and our usual yogurt. Mom also ordered the portobello mushroom.

We also headed to Mustafa afterwards - they've moved their stuff so now the jewelery section had been consolidated. They also seem to be selling toiletries in three different areas within the complex. Apparently it's to prevent people from jamming up any one area. For once, the number of people on the first floor was much less than what was allowed by safety regulations!

Bird watching

 

Dad took me to MacRitchie Reservoir to show me a nest of eggs - which I'll post later. it turned out to be so close to where we were standing, I didn't have the right lens for it.

We did see some other birds including the Hill Myna, and what is either a yellow rumped flycatcher or an iora. Anyone have any idea?

Lunch at Enso

 

M - as promised photos of the food.

Planetofsound, D and I went to Enso Kitchen for lunch. They run out of Goto Restaurant in the always interesting Ann Siang Hill area.

The food was very unusual and tasty. The first dish was a tofu which had no tofu in it - it was made out of arrowroot and sesame. It came with fresh wasabi. The texture was slightly rubbery - and I don't mean that in a bad way. The wasabi was actually less spicy than the stuff you get out of a tube - but it was also more fragrant and subtle.

Then we had the main course - there was asparagus with a white miso sauce, a lovely clear soup with turnips and other vegetables (and tasted far tastier than we expected), a spinach in a dashi sauce and an interesting frozen tofu which was reconstituted with water. This was really interesting - instead of astronaut food, when you bit into it, you got a very juicy tofu. There was also a potato croquette but instead of bread crumbs, the chef used sesame seed. The rice was, well, rice :)

Dessert was some bean - not my favourite I have to say, because of my lack of love of non-savoury beans. We all agreed that we felt nice and healthy after the meal.

We then headed to Books Actually and a little bookstore called Woods in the Books that specialises in childrens' books - both were beautiful, if pricey.

Dinner and Movie

 

What is it about rain that makes Singaporeans drive as if they can't break the 20 km/h speed limit? On Thursday, it was raining pretty heavily out and I drove to meet J for dinner - it took me almost an hour to cover what should at most have been a 30 minute drive.

It's been raining in the afternoon a lot, so I shouldn't have been surprised when Planetofsound got completely stuck in traffic coming to pick me up so we could watch a movie. I had suggested AMK Hub - not realising that the place would be impossible to get into on a Saturday evening at not quite 6 pm. We decided to forego our tickets (and the movie) and drove to GV Grand where surprisingly we were able to get both tickets and a parking spot (incidentally, when did movies start costing $10 a ticket??).

We watched Kick Ass - which was entertaining and funny. We wanted to wait for Imp to watch it - but the other movies would have meant we'd have to sit around and twiddle our thumbs some more. Sorry Imp - but you DO get Bali instead ;)

We had dinner at Crystal Jade and bought chocolate at this little boutique which sells both chocolate and bears.

NUS Museum

 

Higglytown Mom told me that there was a Cheong Soo Pieng exhibition at NUS Museum. I wasn't familiar with his work so we stopped by the NUS Museum. Higglytown Mom's daughter asked to come too so Higglytown Mom picked her up.

We dropped her daughter, E, off with her grandmother and then toured the museum. It was a pretty nice collection though sadly one of the rooms smells like mould - I suspect it's in the air duct.

Lunch at Spruce

 

Higglytown Mom and I had lunch at Spruce - the food was pretty good. Higglytown Mom wanted to throw a private party there and the woman who was supposed to give the information was extremely unfriendly though.

Higglytown Mom then took me over to her brother's new art gallery - there were some beautiful works there and her brother explained some brush strokes to me. It was all very interesting.

Dinner

 

After facial and lunch at the vegetarian store at Orchard Point, I came home and baked a pie for Imp and Planetofsound.

Planetofsound's parents took us to dinner. Here's a photo of Imp holding the pie - she was busy fondling the pie during dinner :) Dinner was at Min Jiang and absolutely delicious. I was stuffed and only remembered to take a photo of the mango pudding :)

The company was, as usual, wonderful and we had a fun discusion ranging from the Death Penalty to the infamous Gold Bar murders in Singapore (which Mom immediately knew about!).

Annalakshmi

 

M, J, D and I used to go to Annalakshmi for meals. The food was always decent, and it was nice to eat there especially because the profits went to charity. The interesting thing about the place is that you pay what you want for what you eat.

Mom and I found that Annalakshmi had moved today when we went to Chinatown to buy beads. The food was still good and I had a very interesting lassi - orange and honey! Mom had a really nice brinjal dish too.

Zerofeel

Livonia live.

Livonia!

 

Man dancing at Livonia concert

Imp, D and I went to see Livonia perform tonight. Nice to see the band together again. They were great and it was a fantastic set (if warm because it was outdoors!). Halfway through though, this guy ran up and started dancing in front of the stage! He was awesome as you'll see.

I took this in High Def on my nifty little camera (my birthday present from Simian) but it was unfortunately too large to upload onto Youtube.

Pecan Pie

Pecan Pie
Originally uploaded by ariel1511976

I blame M - I really do. It was an incredibly hot day and what was I doing? Making pecan pie. M and I had been talking about maple syrup - real maple syrup as opposed to maple flavouring - when she mentioned she had baked a fantastic maple pecan pie. All other thoughts flew out of my head at that point.

I haven't made pecan pie in a while and it's possibly my favourite kind of pie (then again, every pie is a good pie). I tried this from the Baking lllustrated book. It was SO hot today though that even though I sliced into the pie four hours later, it hadn't quite set. I just peeked at it in the fridge and it's good and set now. So Planetofsound, Imp and D, please toss your slices into the fridge before eating them!

It was sweet enough without being too sweet though - and it's absolutely true that the nuts should be chopped up instead of thrown in whole.

Funnily M called too - she was making brownies and called to check a temperature conversion. When you have to bake, you have to bake.

On a different note, how good does this film look? I love Julianne Moore and especially Mark Ruffalo.

Dinner at Min Jiang

 

M and I went for dinner at Min Jiang - after M took me there for my birthday, both of us decided we had to go back. Dinner didn't disappoint. We had vegetarian peking duck, vegetable with three eggs in a broth, tofu and bamboo pith and we each had a soup. Burp - clearly we ordered too much and couldn't finish.

Mughal exhibition

 

M and I went to see the Treasury of the World exhibition at the Asian Civilisations Museum. M remarked that we were either plebians or the lighting just wasn't fantastic because a lot of the artifacts looked kind of fake (and they had looked much prettier in the photos). As M put it, some of it looked like it could have come from Mustafa. Some of the works were pretty interesting though and I learnt about the ketar swords which apparently are very effective in stabbing. I did like the jade carvings and many of the bird rings and objects.

Baking

 

Simian left yesterday - there was a problem with his flight and he had to disembark because someone had accidentally drained the plane of some essential fluid. He still managed to get in on time this morning though and drove home in an impressive three hours.

I baked today - since it was so incredibly hot, I decided that I might as well make bread. I made caneles, a maple pecan bread and I tried this cupcake recipe. It didn't work for me - for one thing, the temperature of the oven seemed really low for cupcakes and also it seemed strange that it was done in a mixer and with all the ingredients tossed in together. I had also tried a new silicone muffin cup so I did the experiment - was it new baking cups or the recipe? My next batch of cupcakes turned out perfectly with a different recipe so I think it may have been the recipe.

Dinner

 

Dad took Simian, Imp, Planetofsound, D and two of my uncles out for dinner. I was too busy eating and talking to take too many photos but here were some of the dishes we had - we had soup, tofu, noodles, vegetables and beancurd skin for Simiand and I. The others also had peking duck, fish and beef (don't worry Imp - told them to make sure none of the fish served were in any danger of going extinct).

Simian and I also made a cake for Planetofsound's birthday - Simian decorated it. He also added more stuff after I took this photo!

Lunch with the girls

 

Simian and I had lunch at the Green Room cafe with M and J. The food was a lot better than we remembered - M got Simian a new tshirt which he put on right away. The laksa was especially good and it was good to catch up!

Botanics

 

Mom and I stopped by the Botanics - I needed to get some stuff for people back in Maryland and the Botanics were the best place to get them. I also got two fantastic books on local birds!