The giant Giant

Ikea, Giant & Courts congregating their mega malls in Tampines.... With all the space, it feels like I am back in the States... kinda nice walking from building to building... guess I like all things big...

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Cleaning the baggages...

Can't say I've had a super efficient day, but at least I did something today. That, plus having slept away the entire morning!

Nah..... those were not harvests from the recent Great Singapore Sales, but the collection of bags we have at home.... URBAN today says bags should not be kept in plastic bags. Hence, the spree to repack them. Never realised though, that I've got so many bags until I lay them out on the floor... (and those were not all!)

But somehow, I'm always having difficulty trying to find the right bag to go with the day's attire... aye... there can never be enough...

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When's the last time you've had a Kid's set meal?

I had mine today...

At first fascinated at being allowed to order a kid's set meal, but as I chomp on the dried beef patties in the burger, I started drooling over the fancy shepherd's pies that sat neatly at the counter display... LMMM's ham-wrapped-in-chicken-topped-with-cheese (whatever you call that) looked great too.

Ah well, that's life - Whatever you order just won't seem as great as someone else's.




(Eversince Yin's query, I have been wondering why the nick for S is worth a "muahaha..".... anyway, it will henceforth be changed to LMMM. Looks longer and less stingy than a single character... and he cannot even really figure out how to remember what that means... keke...)

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Drool Blog #2: Cool with Al-fresco dining

Having been pretty pre-occupied by work recently, I thought S would have been too busy to go on the little "specials dates" we would usually have on the days past the mid-month. I was caught in a (pleasant) surprise when he nonchalantly "reminded"me of our dinner date in the morning. Technically, it should not be deemed as a reminder cos there was no pre-appointment. Nonetheless, the fact that he actually made the effort to keep the evening aside amidst vying attentions means much.

We settled at this little al-fresco dining place at Labrador Park called "THE OLIVE RISTORANTE". Very italian name that speaks of the food served indeed.


I was initially pretty skeptical about doing an outdoor dining as such in Singapore. In fact, I started off, unable to help, but scrutinizing whatever little insect that may be having a wheel of time trying to find the shortest way off the table before I squash them.

Perhaps weather that day was good. Or perhaps Hong was right when she said being under the trees beat being in the air conditioned room. To be exact though, we were never directly under the trees, thought we were made to believe so. There was a transparent shelter cleverly hidden above the plant-parasites, making outdoor dining experience possible even in the rain.

With the fan supplying sufficient draught, we manage to have an outdoor dinner without much complaint of perspiration pouring. It is either that, or we were simply too distracted by the pretty food...


First on the order was the seafood platter appetiser. The presentation sent us drooling, and the dish delectable. okay... ... maybe it's my photo-taking skills that still pend improvements... here's another shot I got from streetdirectory.com...

Scallops topped with prawns, and smoked salmon topped with cavier

The pros made it more palatable looking indeed. I loved the prawns & scallops... and the drips of rich balsamic vinegar that goes with the greens. Smoked salmon and the cavier was a tad too salty though.

For the mains, we ordered Al fungi linguine that S thinks looked like chinese noodles on the photo... yea... blame the incompetent photographer and her phone again..

The color looked off indeed for it was not exactly the usual tomato based gravy you normally have on your pasta. This one has a little buttery goo kinda texture with a little spicy, but nothing overpowering. Just lacking in the tomato flavor.

Star of the night was the dessert. Since this is our first visit, and we are unfamilar with what's best, we went for the cannot-go-wrong choice: warm chocolate cake with ice-cream.

The cake was warm and heavenly, the vanilla ice-cream cutely sitting on a little round dish goes perfectly well with the chocolate. We cleaned off the plate in matter of minutes. Lingering, we observed that the crowd is made up of couples seeking their romantic whiles under the velvety dark, and a number of yuppies chilling out over bottles of wine.

The casual tranquaility made the dinner experiential, and have me appreciate the food and the company better. An after-dinner walk around the area (didn't wander off too far though, cos scarey cat is not too comfy with places that are too dark & deserted) , and subsequent drive down the hill ends the evening on an awesome note.

Might be nice to have dinner against the setting sun. Guess I can do this another time... earlier...

Address: Labrador Park 1019, Labrador Villa Road, Carpark A, Singapore

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Drool Blog: The Fungus Feast

Yin insisted that I must blog the Fungus feast aka Health Set hotpot, purportedly anti-oxident, anti-ageing & anti-toxic.... I have never been a foodie, so do bear with the greenie.


Since it was under the insistence of Yin that this first food blog entry was conceived, the story should thus start from her.... and her decision to go vegetarian for the day 'cos of her new resolution to go veg-one-day-and-meat-the-next-and-so-on-and-so-forth. Since she already had meat the day before, it is veg day on 01-May.

Well, mum thinks she really can be flexible and do meat-meat-veg-veg instead of keeping the boring rhythm of meat-veg-meat-veg. Anyway... in support of her quest to abide by her resolution, I combed the Serangoon Gardens area and chanced upon a quiet little corner restaurant called Mushroom Park, nestled in the busy Serangoon Gardens.

It sounds amusing, but the thought of a fungus feast seemed to excite her much. While I'd thought I would enter to do a 9.8 set meal (meaning set lunch meal costing $9.80+++) as advertised on the bill-board, and resoluted not to over-eat, we ended up succumbing to the lead's recommendation for a hotpot set, said to be their best known.

We started the meal off sipping mug of tea whilst waiting for the soup to simmer...

Tea was no normal chinese tea, but one that packed the mug with lotsa ingredients. The trick, I have learnt from Yin, was to keep the lid closed. This is to allow the aroma of the ingredients to be totally infused within the mug.

First dish on the set is MUSHROOM SASHIMI. Never thought mushrooms can also be made into sashimi. They looked like abalone cubed and its texture chewy, the perfect abalone counterfeit.

As we chatted & the soup on the hot pot starts to boil, the waitress came with the assortment of fungii - the main show of the meal:

There's from the top right, the flimsy black-fungus looking (ermm.. yah hor.. they are fungii to start with... but I am not food blogger... not too sure how to describe that....), the "oyster mushroom", the liver looking mushroom (that makes me wonder if Audrey II in little shop of horror will look like that if cut up), and the left overs of the heavenly mushroom sashimi (that's probably too saintly, they reflected all the light).

On the same tray was a stop watch that will do a 7-minutes count down as the dishes are thrown one after another into the hotpot. As this is being done, the waitress explained that the fungus have to be thoroughly cooked before they can be eaten. I reckoned so too. Leaving spores to germinate in the body sure is not right.

It's not all greens & browns though. There's also protein supplement in some thinly sliced beef and chicken. Overall, the meal seemed pretty wholesome. There's no feeling of having sinned in gluttony even after cleaning off the whole big pot, and that is without sparing a pretty little dessert to end off the meal.

We sat through till the shop closes for the afternoon at 3pm. That's when we realised we were the only customers left, and the lead politely asked if we'd want the bill.

The Bill:

$26.80 per pax (cheapest of the three sets they have on the menu). However, there was a 10% discount stated on the bill (S said it might be cos of some HSBC dining privileges, but I think it is cos the lead knows that was our first visit. In any case, a discount is always good news.) There's 10% + 5% charge & tax for the meal.

The Ambience:

Chinese restaurant with tasteful Family setting. Can be good for business too.

The Service:

The lead was pretty chatty, and has got this pair of electrifying eyes. The other waitress and waiters are mainlanders who are pretty obliging to our multiple curious questions.

Address: 87 Serangoon Garden Way S(555983)

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Burnt

In view of the May-day holiday today, we decided to chill out at Lower Pierce Reservior on Monday evening after a tired day at work. While at the carpark, I suddenly looked up and saw the trees and branches hovering above us forming an art web across the skies that seemed to depict my feelings then - whatever it is...

Against the setting sun, the green leaves and branches looked like burnt twigs and chaff. There seemed to have a dose of dreadly malancholy. Staring at the scene instilled some kind of serenity, yet such a web seems to hold within it, a dash of grim. Yea... it's inexplainable....

Over the last months, I have been in an out-of sort mode. "Out"... as in..... I also dunno.... it's some inexplicable chagrin...

Patience worn thin. Level of irritability shot beyond the mercury measure. Productivity seemed to have gone awry, and energy sapped beyond whatever much I reckon I still contain. Everyday is a tired day.

Once, it's mind over the body, now, everything seemed to have gone amok. The mallard feels like stopping the paddle. Utterly disrupted life.

Perhaps it's time for a time-out....