24th June 2009

Nope nothing momentous happened thus far today but I’ve been sitting here trying to think up an innovative title for a post that isn’t terribly innovative. My creative juices are slightly dried up…a new colleague who just joined remarked of my blog that I seem to be fond of henna…i must admit i was floored. I thought i had more content than that but if i’m to be known by my henna alone well I’m not ashamed of that either. I do good work dang-nam-it!

In anycase maybe its time to fine-tune the focus of the blog or maybe not…if its to be a true reflection of me it can hardly be about one thing. Just a short note on IKEA today. Since we’ve had new hires there was a need for a shopping trip to IKEA to provide enough seating and work surfaces for all. The restaurant at IKEA Alexandra has had some very innovative changes made to it (seen here modelled by our very own AB):

Given the huge crowds that pack the mealtimes there they’ve designed ergonomic lunch tray carts which occupy the minimal most space and with maximum maneuverability. Awesome! Now thats a store with a consistent message that extends into their non-core business as well. IKEA is also (from what I’ve seen the few times I’ve eaten there) one of the few places where people do not attempt to hold seats with tissue paper packets…BLISS

I’ll post up the recent adventures from my last trip to Hanoi and Ha Long Bay but for now i leave you with this…i finally replenished my stock of henna cones and my sorely underflexed muscle produced this:

Next artistic venture is a baby blanket…Akan datang

I’m 2!

Preet-o turned 2 without fanfare this year as I dealt with my private emotional issues. A very happy belated birthday to me. Someone recently asked me why i would put so much of my life out there…well i genuinely like writing. I feel though subtle there is a sound theme to my blog and i like knowing i have faithful readers out there

So on to major world happenings. Barack Obama is the first non-white president of the USA. 007 is returning to our screens and “sentiment” is officially a bad word for me!

Some things which have got me through, sans election fever, are the following:

My cousin enjoying a ‘celebrity’ moment in my oversized shades. I think he looks way cool with his batman shirt on to match!

The scarf I knit for my sister…(there’s a matching hat but that’s a surprise)

A close up of the pattern

My personal label for all my hand-made creations

Its also AB’s birthday tomorrow. “Happy Birthday Old Man”. He already has his present and we had an amazing lunch at Shahi Maharani (at Raffles City Shopping Centre) which was absolutely delish

Mouth-watering papdi chaat that was a gastronomic delight

The lamb chops are a definite must-try. Lovely little chops that are fork tender and just melt in your mouth. Yummy!

I’ve also been trying to adjust to being a solo act with my partner in crime gone. I’ve  joined a gym and hope to try out some new stuff..though I’d love to give my belly-dancing another go as well. So many choices and so little time. The stresses of a carefree single life…and I wouldn’t have it any other way

Enjoy your week.

Food, fun & frivolity

During my little hiatus from the blog-o-sphere my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. In the last few years I’ve seen many marriages fall apart but by the same token I’ve seen the love and caring in my grandparents marriage and the little things my parents do for each other. In case anyone is under the illusion its a bed of roses its not. Anyone in a long-term relationship will attest that its a rollercoast ride for sure. My parents fight over things big and small but are able to leave an argument in its place and move past arguments that have no bearing on their relationship beyond the superficial.

To celebrate the occasion my sis and I got them gifts and took them out to dinner to a restaurant we had discovered at the wedding of extended family last year. If you like North Indian cuisine at extremely reasonable (and by this I mean almost dirt-cheap) prices do head over to Khansama which has several outlets but the one in Science Hub has an amazing ambiance and decor. Here’s a peek …

A weekly favourite: Lunch at Moi Lum

This restaurant is one of my weekly favourites and with good cause. Moi Lum has been around for decades and their food is a testament to why.

This dish, Roasted Chicken Noodles, doesn’t make an exciting picture but as far as taste goes it is a techni-colour masterpiece. I won’t pretend to wax eloquent about the noodles..they are nice but the star of this is the chicken, something i do know a little something about. It is wonderfully crisp on the skin and still tender and juicy close to the bone. The marinade they use on this gives this a lovely flavour that bursts and coats your entire mouth.

This next dish, Black Pepper Venison, is AB’s go-to dish whenever we eat here. To avoid taste-bud fatigue he tries a few different combos to this and the combo pictured is a testament to my limited Mandarin and the wonderful understanding of the nice waitresses who use their limited English to best efforts.

The dish is traditionally served with plain rice as part of the lunch set but i somehow managed to convey, in Mandarin too i might add, the request that the plain rice be substituted with fried rice

Want some awesome chinese food…head to Moi Lum at 38 Maxwell Road.

Plucky Ducky

Due to the infinite grace of the cosmos my sister and I coincidently had occasion to celebrate in the past month. As is our tradition celebration to us means duck confit and with the closing of our favourite Le Troquet we ventured to where the chef had gone: Makarios Cafe Bar located on the 3rd floor of the National Library Building at Victoria Street.

We skipped the appetisers and instead had some of the best bread I’ve ever tasted. Freshly baked bread bursting with flavour in each bite

The duck confit was par excellence and I was in gastronomic heaven when the first bite caused a burst of flavour to roll around my mouth and bathe my senses in pure delight.

The evening was rounded off with profiteroles…a fitting end to a most satisfying meal.

Throughout dinner we shared excellent conversation and the house wine…a nice white which went quite well with everything we had.

 

Till the next celebration

Foodie Delights!

Where: Moti Mahal, Murray Terrace (aka Tanjong Pagar area opp Maxwell Market)

Who: Lunch with the usual suspect

What: Naan, Rice, Lamb Butter Something, Dal Makhni, and a Paneer ala Tandoor for a starter

I’ve eaten at Moti Mahal several times over the last year. Its a good space for a slightly upscale lunch and allows for reservations. On Monday with nothing else looking appetizing AB and I decided to head there for a lunch treat. The food was excellent as per normal but the cute quirky extras, like the mini-bucket our Dal Makhni came in, definitely upped the entire experience.

Our Paneer Tandoor starter was absolutely scrumptious as well with nice crispy edges but a lovely smooth interior. The little bucket, ambiance, and of course the food has us thinking that a $50 lunch once every month isn’t such a major indulgence after all

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Where: Chocolate/Dessert place in Robertson walk next to Brussels Sprouts

Who: Dinner with my good friend M.S.

What: Chocolate Fondue

After stuffing ourselves silly at Brussels Sprouts over a lovely dinner M.S. and I decided to give over to gluttony and sat ourselves down for dessert and that too a whole chocolate fondue.

The chocolate was utterly yummy and had a great consistency. The fondue had bananas, marshmallows, cake, strawberries, cookies, and dried fruit (I’m guessing the cookies as the fondue was consumed about a month back and my gastronomic memory doesn’t stretch all that far!!) and goes down in my desert hall of fame. I’m not huge on desserts or sweets in general but this fondue scored big!

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Enjoy the week ahead

Lunch @ GetIT – Hyderabadi Briyani

My office is a fairly relaxed environment and as we are a small group of people who genuinely like each other most of the time we developed a tradition of lunching together from time to time. Needless to say much fun and laughter resonates in these lunches with everyone displaying their quirkiest best!

The hilarity at the last lunch began with Santo poring over the menu with a puzzled frown. After a few moments he looked up and asked if the menu was in Arabic…it was in English – for stylistic enhancement they had used a cursive script!

The other menu boo-boo occurred with AB looking at the design on the cover and wondering why they would advertise the use of lots of garlic in Hyderabadi food since it wasn’t famous for that…it was a string of pearls. The picture below says it all.

One interesting peak we got of the restaurant was the mass frying of papads (or papadums) as we were the first patrons and the staff was still in the midst of prep for the lunch rush.

To pass the time between the papad appetisers and our luscious main course Khayne tried some fancy photography.

Soon after this shot the main stars of lunch appeared…our briyani and tandoori chicken! I think the lovely pic says it all.

The guys rounded off lunch with the smokers indulging in their own form of digestive. AB insisted, in all his male vanity, that i take a second shot since he wasn’t looking his best in the first

Till the next GetIT get-together….

Happy Birthday AB!

AB turned a year older … not that that is anything significant since he already has what i fondly refer to as the ‘father india’ complex whereby he perceives himself to be much older than those around him and a father figure of sorts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(L to R: Yeoh, Santo, AB, Moi, and Jeff. MIA: Khayne. Photographer: Asuthosh)

On this birthday he took the bunch of us out to lunch at our new official lunch spot….Hyderabadi briyani. A detailed post on the restaurant as well as the shenanigans of those present at the last ‘official’ lunch is in the making. We ordered too much…ate till we were stuffed and some of us even had to take a breather in between rounds…but it was great fun.

To the birthday boy…many happy returns of the day!

Good Food in Raffles Place

I was having lunch at one of my favorite places and decided its a must share. For those of you who like Indian food, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and who work around the Raffles Place area in Singapore do try Makaan Mumbai. It has affordable lunch time set menus which taste just great. The chef also keeps changing the dishes in the sets so it takes a while before you get a repeat.

An example of their set menu:

• Mondays: North Indian and Maharashtrian meal
• Tuesdats: North Indian and Indian Chinese/Paratha Meal
• Wednesdays: North Indian and Chicken Briyani/Fish or Chicken Meal
• Thursdays: North Indian and Gujurati meal

Each meal comes with a serving of rice and 2 chapatis along with all the yummy vegetables. They also have a really good ala carte menu. During my 21 day vegetarian prayer/fast i was not disappointed as the dishes were new each day.The restaurant has its main branch along Telok Ayer Street directly opposite the DBS bank at PWC Building. They also has stalls at Suntec foodcourt and the Kopitiam at Bukit Batok.

If you like Indian food or are a vegetarian wanting to look for a different flavor do check it out.

Now those of you who know and love Indian food know that a meal is hardly complete without a good cup of Masala tea. For that we head to the newly refurbished and lavishly renovated Market Street Carpark. There we go to Mr. Tea which is located on the inside of the car park compound opposite Juz Juice (i think thats how its spelt since i only glanced at it!!). They have a mind boggling 40 varieties of tea and the nice guy who was manning the store front told me its originally from New York and was started at 49th and Brooklyn. I had their hot Masala tea and it nicely rounded off my meal.

The tea was nicely spiced without being too heavy and the aroma was just heavenly. I will definitely be headed back there to try more teas

Brain Drain

Many nations are facing or have been faced with the phenomenon of brain drain aka the pool of talented and highly educated citizens of your country choosing to pick up stakes and search for their fortunes on other shores. There are of course many serious economic, political and social issues related to this phenomenon but thats not what I’ll be delving into.

The ‘brain drain’ I’ll be choosing to talk about is quite literally just that…the loss of common sense and a touch of etiquette amongst the common folk of our Sunny Singapore. This is rather amusing to me since there was a “Four Million Smiles” campaign launched in conjunction with the world bank meeting to get Singaporeans (especially those in the service sector) to appear hospitable and welcoming. Well either Singaporeans have limited hard drives and there is a constant loss of data due to disk clean-ups or they are simply not programmed to be civil and pleasant without being told to do so by the government. Whatever the reasons may be it is highly disheartening to be confronted by a lack of sense and manners from the so-called ‘educated’ stratas of this country’s society.

I could launch into a discourse on the varied ways in which this is exhibited but I believe in giving everyone their due so I will focus on just one example today.

Most of us have eaten in a hawker centre at least once and should you go to a hawker centre during a particularly busy time e.g. Lau Pa Sat between 12 to 2 on a work day you will see the a mass of people trying to get seats and many empty tables with just a packet or two of tissue paper. To the uninitiated you may think that there is no problem and there is a wealth of seats to pick from. Here comes the rub: Instead of finding seats and perhaps having a friend sit there while you take turns to get your lunch people will ‘reserve’ seats by placing these packets of tissue paper on empty tables. The poor fools who decide to get their food and then look for a table are often left wandering about hoping desperately that a seat should be vacant while there is still time in their lunch hour.

Now I can excuse (to an extent) this sort of behavior in a hawker centre. There is a certain lack of finesse, shall we say, to a dining experience in a hawker centre and you excuse some behavior you may not expect in maybe a fast food restaurant.

Imagine the setting to be a casual dining restaurant like Soup Spoon which has opened a new branch in the Market Street Carpark Complex. Given the area you would expect the diners to be the office staff, lawyers, bankers, IT professionals and you would expect that there would be no such issue in that setting. WRONG!

This picture was taken at the Soup Spoon branch mentioned around 12:30pm on 31st October 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tissue paper

This was not the first time AB and I had witnessed this but we lived in the hope that the behavior we noticed in the restaurant was a deviation from the norm or if it wasn’t then at least the staff and management of the restaurant would take a stand and stop this. The structure of the restaurant is such that the counter for placing your orders is right by the door as you step in and the natural inclination for most peole would be to place their orders and send someone ahead to sit and secure seats or to look for seats once the order is filled. The ‘Tissue-Paper Table Hogs’ who have yet to place an order of food in the restaurant, are by their actions, penalising people who have already purchased their meal and simply looking to actually consume the food they have bought.

“Four Million Smiles” for tourist or “more brain and less drain” in actual life?