Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Negaraku

Tanah tumpahnya darahku

Rakyat hidup

Bersatu dan maju

Rahmat bahagia

Tuhan kurniakan

Raja kita

Selamat bertakhta

Rahmat bahagia

Tuhan kurniakan

Raja kita

Selamat bertakhta...

Ratatouille!

Thanks to chimpunkrock who managed to get tickets, we finally managed to catch Ratatouille at the cinema! No thanks to the school holidays, trying to get tickets to watch a movie has been quite the challenge... :p

According to Wikipedia, the word ''ratatouille'' comes from "touiller," which means to toss food. Ratatouille originated in the area around present day Nice. It was, originally, a poor farmers dish, prepared in the summer with fresh summer vegetables.

I remember eating ratatouille for dinner when I was staying at university halls in London. Don't recall liking it much! But then again, that was hall food... hmm.

Anyway, back to the movie. It's a lovely film about a rat- Remy, who loves food and cooking, and desperately wants to be a chef. It does sound a bit far-fetched, but then again, the motto of the movie is 'Anyone Can Cook'!

The animation is incredibly impressive, and at times I thought I was looking at real water or buildings. Remy is so adorable, although I have to warn that seeing an entire colony of rats scuttling about onscreen can still be rather scary!

In short, Ratatouille is highly recommended. But try not to watch it while you're hungry; it won't be easy seeing all the food, food, food! :D

See you on Facebook!

Most of you would have probably heard about Facebook by now. In fact, it feels like the pace of blogging has slowed down somewhat- perhaps everyone is busy on Facebook? Heh :)

Personally I have been happily discovering the jobs of Facebook- playing Scrabulous (Scrabble) with friends, taking care of my fluff friend (think online Tamagotchi), subjecting my fluff friend to races so I can win munny ($$), joining in Food Fights, sending Free Gifts, Pastries, Drinks, taking quizzes on movies and Harry Potter, pinning dots on a world map... the list goes on. Sounds daft? Wait till YOU (if you haven't already) try it!

Anyway, Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you (so it says on the login page). It's quite amazing really; I've managed to find long-lost friends, and it has been great catching up with them. In fact, with so many applications involving sending virtual stuff- gifts, sweets, drinks, hugs, etc; Facebook sort of gives you the chance to say that you're thinking of your friends without many (or any) words at all!

See you on Facebook then? Oooh... but beware- it is HIGHLY addictive! O_o

Random Pictures

This marshmallow pillow belongs to Moonie- I've named it the 'Sausage Roll'.

Had to flip it over otherwise you can't see the cute ears...

This is my Grilled Mushroom- it's actually a massager! So cute, huh? :D

National Museum of Singapore

I really wanted to check out the special exhibition- Banquet in Stone, at the National Museum of Singapore, so I dragged Mum and Moonie along with me. It turned out to be really interesting, and I’m so glad we went, although the exhibition was a lot smaller than I expected, taking up just a small gallery space.

Banquet in Stone is a unique exhibition where Geology meets Gastronomy. This exhibition features a sumptuous feast of over fifty 'dishes' and 'delicacies', from Hong Kong style dim sum to Western desserts. The ‘food’ is actually made up of rare stones such as agate, chalcedony and amber that have withstood weathering for million of years. These rare stones featured in the 'dishes' were selected for their uncanny resemblance to real food!

One of them even has a lasting natural aroma- it smells like chocolate (no kidding). More than half of these natural-occurring stones on display come from the western part of China such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

Photography wasn't allowed in the gallery, but check out the banner and the postcard about the exhibition...

Can you believe these are stones?

In the end, we decided not to visit the permanent exhibitions at the museum, which revolved around 4 different themes- Food, Film, Fashion and Photography. After all, as Mum said, why pay to check out the ‘Evolution of fashion from the 1970s-1990s’ when all we have to do is look into her wardrobe? She DID have a point. :p

Dian Xiao Er, Vivocity

Moonie brought me to this charming little restaurant that specialises in herbal duck. Now I’m a real duck fan, but I was rather sceptical of eating my beloved duck with herbs… hmm.

The duck turned out to be really yummy- the herbs were subtle and did not overpower the taste of the duck.

We also ordered Fried Mee Sua and another Tofu dish that were both quite delicious! Don’t be frightened by the long queue at the restaurant- the line moves quite fast since they take your order as you queue, and they don’t allow whole groups to occupy tables when only a few have arrived.

Overall, this is a great place for a quick (assuming you’re not going there in a big group) and tasty meal!

How much are those duck heads at the window? (Quack quack)

Morbid, I know :p

La Cave Wine Bar & Restaurant, CHIJMES

Ended up back at CHIJMES one evening, but at a different restaurant of course!

All of us ordered something with seafood; bet cholesterol levels were sky-high right after that... :p

I went for a Grilled Whole Lobster with Pasta- now this was a bit disappointing as the lobster was rather tough. But the pasta that came with a creamy tomato-based sauce was quite tasty.

Moonie ordered a Seafood Paella; it was filled with prawns, mussels, and squid…

Mum went for an Oriental Fried Rice with Seafood. Though it didn’t sound very exciting, I think it was the best dish of the night!

Isn't CHIJMES just lovely? :)

The Smoker from Das Erzgebirge-Haus

Staying true to her hobby of collecting cute and pretty things- Mum could not resist the temptation of stepping into the colourful little German shop in Clarke Quay. Yup, she ended up adding another item to her rapidly-growing collection!

Find out more about the lovely things there on this website- http://www.erzgebirgehaus.com/.

Mum bought a cute little wooden doll all decked out in winter wear, complete with a pipe and a string of gingerbread men on his arm. And what’s so cute about him? He smokes! Hahaha.

Basically it’s a clever little incense burner that lets smoke out through the mouth!

Via Veneto, Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay is such a hip and happening place. Exciting bars and restaurants line both banks of the river; which itself is dotted with brightly-lit river taxis cruising up and down. Me like! ^_^

Somehow those big things providing shade remind me of the aliens in War of the Worlds..

We were there for dinner, and it was quite hard to decide on what to eat, since there were so many different types of cuisine on offer. We finally decided on Italian and stepped into a pretty little restaurant decked out in blue named Via Veneto (near the G-Max Reverse Bungy).

As usual, we ordered main courses to share so that we each get to try everything. Mum went for a Salmone PorriStufati, which was pan-fried salmon with turmeric, served with potatoes. I though salmon with turmeric sounded rather odd, but I was pleasantly surprised- it tasted perfectly alright.

Moonie ordered a Linguine al Scoglio- told you she likes seafood pasta! Hahaha.

Having already ordered a dish of pasta and a fish, what was I then left to order? Red meat perhaps? And so I ordered a Filletto al Gorgonzola- a rather unique dish featuring a beef tenderloin paired with Gorgonzola cheese and roasted pine nuts. I didn’t quite like it on the first bite, since the strong taste of the cheese seemed to overpower all the other flavours, but it got a whole lot better after that. In fact, I found it quite yummy and didn’t hesitate to mop up all the sauce with the tender slices of meat!

Vivocity

Much has been said about this new shopping mall in Singapore which is situated next to Harbourfront, and a short train-ride away to Sentosa. There are some interesting features, but personally I didn’t think there was THAT much to shout about.

The top floor of the shopping mall features a concrete park of sorts, complete with a shallow pool (think only small children will find that mildly amusing) and a good view of Sentosa island (although you do have to ignore the rather unpleasant sight of cranes and containers nearby).

Some photos taken from the top floor of Vivocity:

A pond?

Moo...



Here's an arty farty one! :p

No Signboard Seafood, Esplanade

My first trip to the ‘Durian’- how exciting! Unfortunately it wasn’t to catch a performance (now that would have been nice); but I guess just dinner this time will have to do.

Didn’t manage to take pictures of the Durian-shaped Esplanade itself, but Marina Bay is quite pretty, huh?

Back to the No Signboard Seafood Restaurant. Seriously, ‘No Signboard’ IS the name.

Here are some of the dishes we ordered- the Garlic Steamed Bamboo Clams; this was the best dish of the lot. The clams were succulent and drowned in heaps of garlic. Found it quite expensive though, at S$12 per clam.

Yummy scallops- can't go wrong with them, eh?

The most disappointing dish was the Teochew-style steamed fish, which was overcooked! Tsk tsk. S$63 for an overcooked steamed fish- hmmm. The total bill came up to around S$150 for 3 people. Rather overpriced for the standard of the food we experienced that day!

Dim Sum at Cherry Garden, The Oriental Hotel

In contrast to our previous dim sum experience at Crystal Jade, Takashimaya, this was such a peaceful, lovely experience. We decided not to opt for the buffet (S$38++ per pax) since we didn’t want to stuff ourselves THAT much. And oh, of course it’s not a buffet LINE- dim sum served that way usually tastes horrible! You get to order unlimited servings if you go for the buffet (except for certain special items that you can only order once).

Check out these photos..

The Crispy Eggplant with Pork Floss was unbelievably yummy- the eggplant slices were crunchy on the outside and wonderfully soft on the inside; served buried under a mountain of pork floss. I love both eggplant and pork floss, so this was really a win-win for me!

This is the Crispy Prawns with Wasabi- the huge prawns are lightly fried and coated in a sort of wasabi-flavoured cream. The wasabi was only mildy spicy, so munching on the prawns was not a nose-tickling experience, heh. I LOVED this dish- every bite was such a delight!

The interior of Oriental Hotel... pretty isnt it?