Reverting back to the old ways

This morning, I had cheese, ham and bread for breakfast. This is largely due to the fact that I am just back from Amsterdam and Paris, where I enjoyed eating breakfast like that.

This way of eating is not new to me. I used to do it once in a while to remind myself of the lifestyle I led in Suisse and in Oz. I did tell Spacecake and OLKgal that I do not mind eating bread everyday. I really don't, but coming back home also made me realise that having other choices is good too. That's only because we have been exposed to different types of food.

The fact that the types of Asian food being so reasonably priced made me appreciate it even more. I peered into one "Malaysia Restaurant" in Amsterdam and a dish of Nasi Lemak cost 17.50 Euros!!! Laksa was also around that price. No doubt, one would be served and be sitting in a suitably climatised room (either air-con or heater, depending on season) but the fact that I could eat Nasi Lemak at 10 times cheaper just made me...more humble when it came to eating here now.

The bready part of me though, laments at the lack of finding nice sandwich and salad type foods here, locally. I suppose I can only look to Subway and Delifrance for comfort and a quick fix then.

My preferred Asian style of breakfast will still be fried bee hoon and coffee with evaporated milk, but more often now, I will have more bread readily available at home .

Lovely day

Met up with some girlfriends to have tea and we ended up having such a nice, arty kind of afternoon. First stop: K.Ki at Ann Siang Hill. Quaint little place with nice environment and nice people. Here are some pics:

 Then we went to this place called Stevie General Store. They sell second hand almost everything and they have got quite a nice selection of retro clothes. Not that cheap though but the owners are really nice.

The owners also sell a collection of second hand books, which they themselves have read and like. They were very humorous and so was their way of tagging their items. There was a bust of Bruce Lee which they labelled as "One of Ip Man's disciples". Thought it rather witty. Just that I cannot remember the rest.

We then hopped over to Books Actually which was diagonally across the road. This shop is now 3 stories high and if I wanted old typewriters and those toy baby grand pianos made in China, I would know where to buy them.

All in all, it was a lazy afternoon, spent with 3 ladies and rounded up with very good dinner at Spizza's.

Lazy but productive Sunday

Wanted to study and do my work at Coffeebean & Tealeaf (Junction 8) today. Was also craving for eggs benedict since I have been cooking it in Cafe World.

The minute I reached there, I was quite put off, as they had put up a sign "no studying" on all their tables. No studying for me then. Then, when I saw the picture and portion of the eggs benedict that they had, I kind of lost all apetite for...it did not look as good as the one in Cafe World. Hahahaha...! It looked too dry and the portion looked too small for my already very hungry apetite. I ordered a "brek 'o day" instead.

I suppose I was too hungry and my brains already told my stomach that the food was not going to be nice and so I did not feel that filled up at all. Not wanting to stay there to try my luck, I left after gulping down my coffee. Plus, the table next to me kept having the irritating message tone from her Nokia and I found that rude.

Anyhow, I ended up buying some cosmetics for myself (see next posting too) as I did a clearance of what I had before. Most of my old stuff are now not usable as they have been left in the box for too long. Don't want to put mould onto my face.

Wanting to buy groceries from Cold Storage, I took the MRT to Novena and instead of going to the supermarket immediately, I decided to park my toosh at TCC. What a lovely decision!


I ordered a side of calamari rings and a herbal tea called "Exotic French" and had a lovely time getting some stuff done! There were lots of distractions though, especially these two friends, a guy and a girl, dissing Facebook. They were just trying to act uppity, if you ask me.

The girl was telling him that some friends update their status and things like somebody in their family died also gets posted and he immediately replied," I think that is too personal to put isn't it? I will never put something like that on Facebook".

Well, who is to say who is to put what on FB? Anyway, it helps keep friends connected, especially those who may not be in the same place/ country as you are. Then finally the guy says what he felt inside him all along; "I think I prefer Twitter. It is so much better". DUH! Whatever!

In that whole span of eavesdropping, I managed to finish a whole chunk of my work. I packed up and left, hoping to give my ears some peace.

Of friends and transport

Last Friday, I met up with my Primary school friends, PK and Karen. We were supposed to go and try out this new place called Kichi Kichi at Takashimaya but  we ended up at Seoul Garden instead. Why? Because we all forgot that it was a Friday and all of us forgot to make reservations!!

We had a good time at Seoul Garden though. I was happy to be eating BBQ stuff, together with soupy things as well. There was a lot to catch up on and we re-connected with one another.

It was quite funny though, before we met up. PK and I are the ones without a car and yet, when we suggested another restaurant (Ebisboshi Shogentai@ Iluma), Karen told us to change to a place whereby there was less ERP, etc, etc.

Seriously speaking, if you have the money to own a car, then why don't you have enough to pay for ERP?? Surely you must have factored that in when you decided to have one. Besides, I thought cars are supposed to give you more convenience as when compared to us public transport folks. I personally just find it a little absurd to have to compromise most of the time.

Well, we finally got it all ironed out and came to a compromise alright! Whatever it was, all's well that ends well.

Health-ier??

Hmm...after proclaiming publicly to be health-ier, I ate something not as healthy as I would like it to be: Korean chicken meat on sticks with rice. I think they called it chicken bulgogi set meal.

It is grilled and all but the thing is, there are little chunks of chicken skin on the stick and that makes it a little too fatty for my liking. Hee, actually, if it were pork, I really do not mind it at all. The fat is more solid and does not feel so squishy like those of chicken. Plus the fat of the pork adds to the texture of the meat itself.

Today though (as in Monday, since I am blogging this past 12 midnight), I thought I was going for the healthier chicken choice. Well, what can I say, not much difference! Guess what? As I am typing this, I just realised that I ate chicken rice twice today! Once at work and then for dinner!! Not that chicken is my all-time favourite, but I just happened to make this choice of food tonight (Monday). Mind you, if I can help it, I will not touch chicken wings. There is a story behind it but I shall save it for another day.

Anyhow, it was a satisfying meal though and ahem, I added a jumbo korean sausage to go with my dinner. The only thing I can console myself with is that nothing was deep fried.

It is not a sin to be fat

Yesterday, I was at NTUC Unity Pharmacy buying Johnson's Baby oil. I was actually on the look out for pure Vitamin C tablets (not those with zinc). The ones with zinc give me lots of gas, a sign of a weak digestive system. I was just looking around when the typical sales auntie walks up to ask me whether I needed help. I told her, "It's ok, I am just looking around."

A very standard reply but a reply nonetheless. It actually means "do not disturb me". Why is it that they do not get it at all??!!!! Ten, twenty over years and they still do not know how to treat a customer right. No wonder they seem to be killing flies more than making sales fly!

What happened next just made me seeth with anger. I mean, I have met with such situations a million times at least but every time, it never fails to make me boil. I just take it as a personal attack and very poor social etiquette. She asked me, " Do you want to take a look at some slimming products?"

How forthrightly insinuating can it get?? I was fuming and had wanted to put down the other products that I had chosen and was about to purchase, but I took three deep breaths and walked myself to the cashier. No point stooping down to that person's level. Well, at least she did not come outright to say that I have a very big tummy or that I had lots of blackheads, all of which happened during my whole lifespan.

I am not slim and far from skinny. However, I have lost quite a bit and am proud of who I am now. Although I am not at my ideal shape yet, I would like to be very positive about myself (which I am). I suppose that lady would not know all that information and she thought that she was giving me a big hand in suggesting that I go on diet.

I think I am a much smarter shopper than that. Slimming products can help momentarily but it does not last forever. One needs to exercise and change one's eating habits to healthier choices in order to maintain the figure.

For years now, these so-called promoters lack the tact and the very technique of capturing the heart of the customers. It's funny how pushy they are. Somebody should tell them to go learn some basic psychology or like I might have said somewhere before, go Taiwan. They have got superb customer service etiquette.

That said, I must tell you what I am doing now to change my eating habits. I am choosing more soupy stuff to eat, such as yong tau foo; ban mian; fish soup with bee hoon and so on. I also try to eat more greens and drink lots of water. Hee, as for the exercise bit, I must admit that I have been lagging a little, but at least I walk from my home to the MRT station. That is already a good 5-7 minutes. Plus changing MRT lines from the red line to the yellow line also requires some walking. Those are the minimal that I get right now. Will be factoring in more exercise regime soon.

Plans and virtual food become reality

Saturday had been one hell of a day. From the word go, there was no stopping. I had to go back to work to help out with an event and afterwards, I met up with my friend to discuss our trip to the Netherlands/ Europe.

I did not realise that the booking of a hotel could be stressful. We actually spent a whole afternoon doing bookings for just 2 places and then, we still had to settle our Eurail pass. By then, I was all google-eyed and had to shout, "Stop!"

Actually, amidst all this excitement, I am also a bit worried as my practicum for my course may be delayed and it may not end exactly in September itself. I am taking a little gamble though and praying very hard that my practicum supervisor will allow me to choose a favourable day before I go off.

By the time we finished everything, it was almost 8 o'clock. Way too late for dinner. As my friend and I were Cafe World fans, we decided to go to Marche at 313@Orchard to eat real food that we usually simply just cook in the virtual world of Cafe World!

Hehe...we had seafood paella and pizza. I almost wanted to get spaghetti bolognaise but had to stop myself. We ate a slow dinner, chatting and laughing as we went along. The food was yum!! Hmm...this game, I better beware of it. If I am not careful, I will be putting on lots of weight by wanting to turn what is virtual into a reality!

Bookworm

Just this Monday, I was off work early, doing the opening shift and all. I had just finished one storybook which I had bought from Books Kinokuniya quite some time back and was craving for another.Reading was another way of keeping myself busy and off the shopping malls. It was an economical yet good old fashion way to pass time, without being too useless at all.

I am a slow reader and borrowing books from public libraries never really did work for me. I would be too stressed up about the due date to be able to enjoy the book completely and in the end, I would still be late in returning them anyway.

My bus takes me through Orchard Road and the nearest bookshop I could think of was Prologue at ION@Orchard. Then I had a better idea! Recently, I had thought I saw Sunny Bookshop still in business at Far East Plaza and I quickly rang the bell and hopped off. Sunny is a second-hand bookshop that was tres popular during my school days. You bought a book at one price and if you returned it on time, you would get back a certain amount which was lower than that of what you paid for. The difference was that the due date was like a month or so and that did not sound so bad to me. I know, strange isn't it? 3 weeks is not OK but 4 weeks is fine. Maybe it has got to do with the fact that if I did not return a book from a second-hand book store in time, I could still keep it for myself.

I was wrong about Sunny though, for it was no longer there. Luckily, there were two other second-hand bookstores for me to peer into and the first one did not look at all appealing. The collection was in a bit of a mess and there did not seem to be much selection and variety to begin with. I decided to consult the directory and found ANA Book Store on Level 5.

The arrangement of the collections were still quite messy but at least this fella had the popular authors and books displayed upfront, which was so much easier. I did not have too much cash with me at that time though and was too lazy to go all the way back down to the basement to get money. I was also running a little short of time and there was still dinner to settle.

I think sometimes with books, it is also fate. I picked out this unassuming book called Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. Amazingly, this was a French translated book and little did I realise that it was filmed into a French movie, Ensemble, c'est tout and was acted by Audrey Tautou! I am quite sure that I have seen the film title before as it was one of those French Film Festival screenings.

Well, it felt like I was back in my Uni days where I went to bookshops, picked up books and trotted off to cafes along the cappucino strip in Fremantle. Except that now, I stay in the comfort of my own room until the wee hours of one, two o'clock in the morning and devour the book some more during my lunch break.

This book was that good! I paid $9 for it and will get back $6 when I return it. Technically speaking, the book just cost me $3, but everyone (including the shop owner) knows that one does not stop there. Once you are hooked on it, you would go back for more and the $6 will be rolled over to your next purchase of books, which is just as well in my opinion. After all, one still has to read anyway.

By the way, I really liked how the owner told me after he had given me change, "Now you can feed your mind with knowledge" or was it "Now you can feed your mind with all that reading". Anyhow, I was in a hurry but I was really happy.

On the way, I saw Wasabi Tei serving its first customers. Made a mental note to self that this could be another Monday early dinner place in future. For usually, there would be a long queue for this place. Once it's bar tables are filled up (and there are only bar-table-styled seating, one would have to obediently queue up for like...forever (when one is very hungry).

p/s: Right now, my mind is all messed up with all that emotional shit after reading the book. The author really knows how to bring one right up to the roller coaster and come down with a big bang. Will probably do a book review of sorts later when I get my emo self sorted out.

Aaarrrh!!

Today (as in Wednesday, 7 July), I was really bitchy. I was rushing to go for night classes as it was going to start half an hour earlier. We were going to get instructions about our practicums and such. Did not want to miss a thing.

I stopped by at Kopi Tiam @ Plaza by the Park and thought it would be healthiest to eat yong tau foo. There were these three persons in front of me: two ladies and one man. The man took longer to decide what to have and I beat him to the queue to get my food done first.

After cooking the second bowl for the ladies, he told the cook to calculate all three bowls of yong tau foo together. I do not know but I felt that since my bowl was at the counter top before the man, that the cook should ask for my opinion on whether I minded to let him go first or not (since they were in one group). Instead, she just told me in Mandarin, "You wait, ah."

That made me boil. Not really but because I was in a hurry. Therefore, instead of taking it sitting down, I simply told her back calmly in smooth Mandarin that I did not want to buy her food anymore. I think the four words "I don't want already" are very powerful consumer tools. In fact, in my opinion, the most powerful. After all, the money is in my hands. I have a choice. All I heard her say was, "Huh??" as I rushed to get other stuff for dinner.

I chose not to wait and went to the nearest, fastest stall, which happened to be the duck rice stall. The duck meat was chopped up in a minute and the whole transaction took less than 3 minutes. I paid, took the packet of rice and took flight. I was going to be at least 4 minutes late, all no thanks to yong tau foo auntie.

By the way, I think that man was also very ungentlemanly. He saw me looking at my watch a few times already and I WAS indeed before him in terms of finalising my choices of yong tau foo pieces. I do not see any reason why I should not go first.

Anyhow, I only just made it in time as they started 5 minutes late to accommodate for people like me :(

Very Korean

Crying is no good for the eyes. They felt like goldfish's eyeballs today, but I managed the day though. Had a refreshing albeit sunburn-ish kind of walk to Singpost Centre during lunch break. It is amazing what walking can do for the mind, except that I wished that it wasn't so hot.

Had Korean food for lunch today. It was BBQ pork set. Then coincidentally in the evening, Mum bought me Korean grilled saba fish set. Because I was rushing to see the Chinese doc, who is ever so busy and popular, Mum had bought me take-away (how sweet!). The very coincidental part was that she took out the set of environmental-friendly chopsticks and spoon set that I bought from Lotte World in Korea. Suddenly, I felt very Korean and I was half giggling to myself as I ate dinner at the Pek Kio Hawker Centre, which was sparsely populated with the dinner crowd thinning out already.

The wait at the Chinese doc's was not so bad and Mum and I went home on one of those rare occasions that she would accompany me out. Bliss! Kept giving her secret smiles and she pretended to glare back at me. Hee!

Happy Saturday

Woah! It was a tiring but happy day today. I met up with two of my ex-colleagues and we did a lot of catch up! We spoke of the good old days and for a moment there, it was like I had never left the company. There were times though, when I felt a little left out.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed their company very much. We ate at Sushi Tei at Tampines 1 and then proceeded to eat desserts at Bakerzin. We sat at Bakerzin for like forever. They made me feel connected and yet, disconnected. There is, from one point in our lives, where our paths seperated. The gap that has developed, can never be filled up again. What we can only do now is to build new paths (different ones) that is unlike any other from before; that of friends.

After the very long chit chat, one of them took the MRT back with me. She alighted at one of the stops and lamented that we used to drop off at this very stop with her and we would take bus back to our homes. We used to stay very near each other. Now, she goes off the train on her own, while I continue my journey much farther than before.

I miss the East still. Which was why I requested that we meet at Tampines anyway. The only thing I forgot was how crowded Tampines could get and how very rough the people living there could be! This man was walking towards me and my arm was lifted and folded (as if reaching to scratch my back) and he rammed right into my arm. He purposely did it though because I was very sure that he saw me going his way. It was already very narrow and yet, he purposely rammed into my arm (his waist was up to my arm, that was how huge he was). It happened near Body Shop, near the entrance of Tampines Mall.

Then, as we were approaching the traffic lights that we had to cross to take the MRT, another lady bumped into my friend. The bump was not a light one but...it was more like I-want-to-ram-you-so-that-you-can-get-out-of-my-way sort of bump. I made this comment that people who live on the East side are so rude! Of course, I admitted that I was also an East-sider but I think I have blogged about this before and said that the people from around where I live are much more civilised!

Well, well, I guess I should not generalise too much, lest I get beaten up! Anyway, I ended up eating bread from Bread Society as I was too full to eat anything else! Ahem! If you click on the link and scroll to "Signature-back to basics perennials", you will see my favourite "Spinach and Cheese". Crispy with cheese on the outside, moist and soft on the inside. Oh! Don't forget to check out the cute head chef too!

Cornflakes Crispies for our Daddies

It had been a good week at work. For those of you who know me, you know what I do. For those of you who don't, you would just have to keep guessing, or you might have already guessed from bits and pieces on my blog.

We made cornflakes crispies two days ago and all of them could not wait to taste it. It was the first time we all made it and we were all anxious and excited at the same time. While we all had fun mixing all the ingredients together, I did most of the scooping of the crispies into the cupcake cups. Oh! I had fun sprinkling the hundreds and thousands too! :)

'Baking' it was a little tricky though for we only had a toaster oven to work with. The first batch got quite burnt and my colleague had to watch the over the oven after that. It was really nice though for after that, we put them into nice little packages to bring them home, to our Daddies!! It's after all going to be Father's Day this weekend! Oh! We made simple cards to go along with it too!

What a leisurely day!

Went out with the girls today (you know who you are) and we had a girlie, smashing time! While one of them got THE shoes that she wanted for her wedding dinner, the other two of us got our satisfaction from buying intimates at La Senza. Well, actually I had wanted to hold back on the spending, but the offer was too good to give up on. Usually, La Senza's offer is 2 bras for $60 but now, because of the Great Singapore Sale (GSS), it is 3 for $60! Plus, as a member, I get an extra 10% discount!

As usual, I was fussy about customer service and I apologise to the girls for having to withstand my nonsense. I really should start a blog on customer service but I also do not want to sound like a grouch all the time. We'll see.

We ate gelato at Gusttimo di Roma and that in itself was another customer service story. The ice cream was good though albeit a little melted. Nice ambience though. Good for little chit chats and some peace and quiet.

Dinner was at Paragon's Big O and the spit roasted stuff was yummilicious!!! It reminded me so much of Cafe World, except that I was eating the real thing!!! Hahaha!

Spending time with Primary school friends today

One of my friends had come back from India with her 3 kids. Every time I see her, she seem to add another kid,and another, and another... . No, I am just kidding. Her kids are adorable.

So there we were, Cadence, Amy, Amy's sister and I. We were at Marche, 313@Somerset. Heehee! Yes, second day in a row that I am there, but IT IS a convenient place for all and there was a play area for the children. Oh yes, there were the kids too! Amy's sister brought her 3 girls, while Amy brough her 3 kids with her as well. All in all, it was a big party!

We spent lots of time playing catch up as we chatted about what we are going through now and there seems to be never-ending stories to tell: from the heat in India, to playing Wii at home and Cafe World on Facebook.

I introduced Amy to Uniqlo and we bought some stuff from there too. If one could become a stakeholder by buying from that particular shop every month, I would definitely have qualified for Uniqlo. Haha! It is so my style now as I do not need to be so formal in my dressing. I am their tights and leggings fan and their clothes can pass off as smart casual when paired properly. Sigh...now I hope to visit the Uniqlo in France. Can't wait! Euros is dropping like mad too!! Hahaha!

As for pictures of the kids and the times that we spent together this afternoon, I will seek permission first before uploading it here.

Spending time with friends on a Saturday evening

I have been doing a lot of catching up this weekend, and I have been going to 313@Somerset. A lot.

Yesterday, I was there. I met up with Spacecakes and Wild Swans to have dinner. We went to this Chinese Restaurant called Paradise Inn. Nice food, horrendous customer service and because of such bad customer service, it caused the food to turn cold and therefore, was not as satisfactory as expected. The only saving grace (to me) was the soup. We ordered a fish soup that was so deliciously yummy and rich in the fish oils and meat taste, that we kept going for seconds and thirds. The rest of the Paradise Inn story, I shall blog it down another time, if I still have the mood. Thinking of it just makes me boil.

It was to be a night of fun and perhaps drinking, but generally we were having the another goes sort of thought and we just moved on from one place to another. After dinner, we sauntered over to the next building, which was the Orchard Central (OC). I wanted to introduce them to Crystal Jade Cafe but by the time we reached it, the "Close" sign was being hung at the menu rostrum outside. We went in search of other sit-down joints.

We found Heavenly Loft + Ben and Jerry's ice cream joint. It was a nice place to be. There was a big mural across the wall in which the centre piece was Adam and Eve. There were a bunch of people whom, I presumed had just finished the World Vision 40 hour Fast (they were wearing the T-shirts) and were breaking fast at the cafe. Nice crowd and staff were OK. Did not chase us away. Minor boo-boo was that they did not ask me before removing my root beer float tall glass. It was not much; just the ice water that had melted while we chatted away, but it would have been plain courtesy to open one's golden mouth to ask before removing it.

We sat till about twelve plus maybe? And then they asked us for last order. We rejected their kindness and paid up to leave. We were still undecided about drinks. The original plan was to go to KPO, which was across the road from OC. We were half-hearted and seeing that it was not so happening while we were waiting to cross the street, we decided to just take a stroll down to Plaza Singapura.

We went to the basement to get money from the ATM and was going to sit at McDonald's but realised that they were closing at 1 am, which was about when we asked them what time they closed. We still wanted to walk and talk and so decided to trot down to the Cathay. There we sat at Starbucks and chatted some more. What a lazy, easy-going night! We were there till about 3am, when the last of its customers left and there was only the girl on night shift cleaning up.

We said our good-byes and took our separate cabs homes. It was indeed good catch up time and I wonder how long this will last as I think will be the last single standing. Heehee!

Craving

Never had I have such a bad craving for something. I almost thought that I was pregnant and although I know that I wasn't (how to, when I am so very single?), I thought I would die if I did not satisfy my craving.

It was a Tuesday evening and I decided to go and eat at Ion Orchard. I passed by the very much talked about bakery/ patisserie called Bread Society. It was opened by this very much celebrity Japanese baker and it has very European sort of breads there. My parents like the Kraften (hope I got the right spelling) dark rye bread and so whenever I can, I will buy it for them. It is $3.30 for only half a loaf! Super precious!

I once overhead this Japanese lady comment, "Tsubarashi" while I was buying bread in the shop and upon checking the internet, this word means something along the lines of "fantastic, excellent, incredible". If it came from a fellow Japanese's mouth, then it should be good! Then again, I already tried it before that and KNEW that it IS good!

There are lots of fanciful stuff within the shop like the custard brioche and things like that, but my favourites are 45rpm, mad about mushrooms, and most of all (the one that caused me to crave), the spinach and cheese bun.

Let me start with 45rpm. It is a super long sausage wrapped in dough and the description in the shop makes me conjure up this cartoon image of someone eating up a very long piece of bread from one end of the room to the other at top speed. The mad about mushroom piece has got some potato and squash in the middle of a round bread topped with lots and lots of forest mushrooms. Hee! Maybe not forest mushrooms but really delicious ones.

I chanced upon the spinach and mushroom buns by accident. They were just lying in the corner, away from the main trays of buns. They did not look very attractive. I had to walk by twice to finally decide to get them. I only got it because the ingredients reminded me of quiche lorraine, which I happen to like.

It was love at first bite when I heated it up in the oven to eat. Yummmmm, yummmm!!!! I really wanted to go back that same night (Wednesday) to buy some more as they were not too expensive, but I really could not. I had to attend classes. Bummer! The thought of me not being able to eat it the next day and having to wait two days to buy and eat it just made me feel all panicky and like I said before, I thought I was going to die. At that point of time, it was worse than missing someone.

Anyhow, I really went back to Bread Society yesterday to get my beloved bread rolls and I have another new favourite which is called mustard and bacon on dark rye. Yes, I actually went to the heart of Orchard Road, despite the newspapers reporting that the Orchard MRT had been marked by Indonesian terrorists; despite the fact that there was heightened security all around. All this, for the sake of food.

p/s: The Japanese baker, who has a life-size cut out of himself in the shop, actually does exist! My mum was fortunate enough to see him kneading dough in his work area and she said that he was very polite as he nodded at her every time he looked up and saw her. Aaaargh!!!! Jealous!!!!

Instant Noodles

It has been awhile since I ate instant noodles as I find that it makes me grow fat rather easily. Recently, as mentioned in my previous posting, I watched this Taiwanese programme that happened to be talking about instant noodles. They were asking some artistes when their poorest period was and how did tney manage to keep themselves full. It was instant noodles of course, and the artistes also went up to cook their own style of instant noodles to let the rest try.

Woah! All that cooking on t.v. made me drool and tonight, I went to buy myself some more instant noodles. This time though, I decided to be a little healthier and bought some vegetables and fish dumplings to go along with the food.

I realised that the Indomie brand of noodles have changed packaging. I think there could have been some sort of merger or something for there was a new brand added on top. Or it could just be Singaporean venture or merger of sorts. For what I saw next was rather surprising too as Nissin, the mother and father of all instant noodles in the world has commissioned some Indonesian company to manufacture and come up with the brand, Mi Bagus. It has a very South East Asian slant to it and its tag line, "makan already?", which means "eat already?". Hmm...all the marketing tactics and strategies.

Anyway, back to my dinner. I finally cooked my dinner using the Nissin orignal flavour, which is the sesame oil one. It used to be my favourite. When I opened the packet, the very first thing I noticed was that the packet for the powdered seasoning has changed. Or rather, the colour for the packet has. Next, I sort of noticed that the sesame oil packet seems to have shrunk. Maybe it was just my own illusion. They might just have made it rectangular in shape instead of the usual squarish shape.

Upon eating, I realised, to my (sort of) dismay, that the taste has changed too! The seasoning, albeit less salty, is not as fragrant and tasty as before. I miss the old taste already!

Anyway, I consoled myself that it will always be my favourite brand of instant noodles, followed by Indomie Goreng, followed by Myojo Charmee and then the Korean noodles. well...let's just say that I am a bit of an instant noodle connoisseur of sorts.

Will I ever get to eat dry noodles again?

Recently, I have been very troubled by the fact that most hawkers sell their dry noodles, rather wet!!

It all started from my minced meat mee pok, that I love to eat. Some places just love to scoop one big scoop of soup to so-call mix the sauces together, when I specifically ordered dry mee pok.

Then it extended to the wanton noodles that I love to eat! They had to scoop soup into the wanton noodles dry that I ordered. I was particularly very angry with this stall at Gourmet Paradise, a food court at Toa Payoh HDB Hub. I had specifically told the guy, "dry-dry, don't add soup". But in the midst of all that talking with his co-worker, he added one round of soup into my noodles already. The second time that I saw him wanting to scoop some more soup, I literally barked at him not to do so. I was fuming mad as I was ordering take-away and by adding soup, it would make the noodles super soggy.

True enough, the noodles were soggy and it had a very bitter taste to it, which means a certain type of ingredient (called jian shui in Chinese) has been overly used in this noodle. I swear I will never eat at this stall again.

At first, I thought this was a trend brought in my Chinese nationals but it seems like the Malaysians (those working at the Gourmet Paradise Hong Kong style roast) are also picking up on this adding soup onto dry noodles habit.

Worst still, I was watching this Taiwanese show on cable t.v. and they were doing an episode on instant noodles. The host was also doing the same thing!! She was demonstrating how to cook IndoMie Mee Goreng and after she dished out the noodles, she poured some soup in to mix!!! EEeeeks!!!

I guess it boils down to personal preference but I really prefer my dry noodles to be just that! Dry!!

I think the only mee pok I will eat will be from the stall at Kopi Tiam food court at Plaza by the Park (reachable by Circle Line, Stop: Bras Basah)and this 24-hour coffee shop at Toa Payoh. But for the latter, I must ensure I get the right staff to cook. If not, this other lady will still steal some soup and even add ketchup, which to me, in mee pok world, is not acceptable.

This stall at this particular food court is called Tang Ren Jie (Chinatown). You must look out for the uncle with white hair and not the uncle with thinning black hair. The latter is a stand-in. He has a slightly bad temper and does not cook as well as the 'original' uncle.

As for wanton noodles, I shall tell you in my future postings, which ones I prefer. Got to get the addresses right first before I 'report'.

Virtual cooking Vs Real cooking

Today, I cooked my own dinner again, using Linguine. I just change the ingredients around. It is quite a versatile dish to work with.

This time around, I still tossed with Balsamic vinegar and olive oil but I put cut up cherry tomatoes, shredded chicken, thyme and parmesan.

I even put the chicken breast meat to good use. There was a whole lot of shredded chicken breast left and I intend to use it to make salad for sandwiches and stuff.

The funniest bit was that I was both cooking in the kitchen and 'cooking' in Cafe World. Halfway through stirring my pasta, the alarm sounded from my laptop, indicating that my food was ready. Inexperienced me was so afraid that my food will spoil that I rushed to click and serve, with ladle in hand. Hahaha! It was a funny sight and my mum had a bewildered and puzzled look on her face as she saw me fly past her.

Charm of Chinatown

I went down with Dad and Mum to Chinatown today. I used to think that it was tacky to be going to such a place as it is THE place for old foggies. Throughout the years though, I somehow had a pretty regular 'relationship' with this place. Dad would bring me to the Chinatown Food Centre every Sunday for porridge and then he discovered the other porridge stall (Ho Kai Kee/ He Qi Ji) and we went to that other coffee shop for porridge.

After my schooling days, I went down to Chinatown less and I did not eat porridge so regularly but about four, five years ago, Dad introduced me to the porridge stall at Maxwell Road and we started going to Chinatown again. Until we sold the car, that is. Dad was not deterred though. He had all the time in the world and would take a bus down to Chinatown to look for his favourite food stalls.

Today, with public transport so well connected, I am visiting the place again. I witnessed the Chinatown Food Centre being built when all the roadside hawkers were asked to move into hawker centres like these. It was for public health reasons that they shooed them into buildings. It has undergone at least 2 major renovations since.

Today, the Chinatown Food Centre is still a very crowded place. The old and/or mature like my Dad, go there to seek solace in comfort food and reminisce in familiar surroundings; the young go there in search of famous food stalls told to them through websites/blogs/forums/their own parents/their friends; some old bring their young to 'pass down' the tradition in terms of the type of food and the stalls they frequent; the foreigners are also there perhaps due to good marketing by our tourism board.

Sitting there on a rainy Saturday afternoon, near where the escalators are, I could see all these people coming and going. There was a very heartwarming sort of feeling and there is a charm about the whole place that drew me in and made me want to stay there for longer. Alas! The lack of air conditioning also makes me want to up and go, to somewhere more airy.

There is always the first level, where the sundry stalls are located. I used to find the clothes there tacky, but now, it a nice place to find nice clothes at reasonably good prices. There is also the CD store which I used to suspect that it was selling pirated CDs. Turns out that they are parallel imports from China and therefore much cheaper that way.

Till next week, I would just have to be contented with the food and happenings around my area.