The last day of 2009

Spent the last day of the year celebrating my sister's birthday at the White Rabbit @ Harding Road, where we had a 'chi-chi' lunch with Xiao Yang, Gen and Sarah.







lazy to write... so just enjoy the photos folks. Happy New Year!

Btw, our wedding photos are up on facebook. =)

Family gathering on Good Friday

Seizing the public holiday opportunity, my relatives on my mum side were invited over for dinner and a screening of one of the short clips from My Hope Singapore. 

My mum really cooked up quite a storm. Here are some pictorial evidence: 

1) Tracy Teo and mum filling our $14/kg prawns with mayo

2) My Grandma taking over the filling of the prawns 

3) My mum's new chicken recipe 

Here's a photo of the Doc with my cousins, playing bluff. Trisha very cute, she doesnt bluff at all but when she has no cards to put down everyone will know cos she will take very very long to

decide what to do until the other two take pity on her and let 

her skip. 

Playing Bluff

Here's a picture of my grandparents...

Spruce

It's been awhile since my sis, the doc and I went for a foodie outing. So since I was on day off today and we were all free, we decided to go for another foodie outing, this time at a restaurant-bakery-deli called Spruce, located along Tanglin Road. 

Upon our arrival at about 11a

m, the place was only 1/3 full and we thought that we would be able to get a seat pretty easier. However, upon closer inspection of the tables, they were all reserved! And here we thought we didnt need to reserve. Thankfully, we did not have to wait long cos a couple at a four seater table had asked for their bill and was leaving. So all we had to do was wait for them to clear the table for us. 

Just as we were sitting down and making oursleves cosy, the waiter came up and asked, 'would you like sparkling or still water?' 

'Still please', i said thinking that he would be giving our normal ice water. A few mins later, three glasses and a bottled of mineral still water appeared at our table; opened and poured into our glasses. My first reaction? 'Oh no!'

Quickly i checked the price of my boo boo (should have said tap water.. how do i know?) and i realised that bottle costs $7 dollars! yikes... But since I couldnt do anything else about it, I just had to live with my mistake. 

After perusing the brunch menu, we finally decided to order the following: 

1. Spruce Burger with bacon - for the doc 

2. The Big Brekie Breakfast - for the sisters

3. One freshly squeezed grapefruit juice - for the sister 

4. One skinny latte to remember my Melbourne days 

The food is really not bad, esp the burger, which received thumbs up from all. 

The big brekkie was also pretty good (see above) but having seen larger scarier portions of the same type of brekkie in Melbourne, I wasnt too impressed. But it did inspire me to create these brekkies at home and invite friends over for brunch! 

The environment was also really relaxed which we all liked. 

So overall, a pretty good experience. Can go back again. 

End of 2008

After chilling out with my Dunman choir friends on Boxing Day, my family (minus me) left for another family holiday, this time, in Bangkok, Thailand; the land of shopping, eating, pollution and other stuff that shall not be named here. It is also I believe, Singaporeans favourite or second favourite place for a holiday primarily because its; 1) cheap 2) good shopping 3) good food.

Yeap it is for these very reasons (after all, we are Singaporeans) that the Tan family decided to spend our last family holiday of 2008 in BKK.

Some of you might be thinking, 'Wa you really have been traveling alot ah? Alot of family trips man.. didnt you just come back from HK?" Haha.. yes I did but well, its the holidays and since I wont be leaving the country at all this year once i start work (maybe just once in the later part of the year), why not?

Besides, other reasons for this trip was to celebrate birthday(s) as well as to usher in the New Year with a difference. So, while the rest of the Tan clan left on 26th Dec 2008, i stayed back over the weekend to spend time with the Doc and left only on 29th night, just in time to celebrate my grandaunt's (popo) and my sister's birthday on 30th and 31st respectively. We bought them a variety of cakes from this really quaint tea room at Central World, placed them artistically on a plastic white chopping board (low budget production and lack of resources) and surprised them by walking into the apartment with it. Have a look:

While we went out on the 30th for dinner, New Year's Eve dinner was spent at home since we reckoned that it would be crowded and expensive everywhere. So, a feast of Peranakan-Thai dishes was cooked up (dont expect anything less in this household). Here is the evidence:

Other Random Shots:

1) A shot of jie while walking from Platinum Mall back to Central World

2) A picture of the whole tea time set

3) One of my favourite shots

4) Trace and Wayne

While we went out on the 30th for dinner, New Year's Eve dinner was spent at home since we reckoned that it would be crowded and expensive everywhere. So, a feast of Peranakan-Thai dishes was cooked up (dont expect anything less in this household). Here is the evidence:

Photos:
prawns-Buah Keluak- Home-made Pomelo Salad- extra Buah Keluak (just the meat)- Thai fishcake + Ngoh Hiang + Roast Pork - Thai Desert
Some were bought some were homemade but regardless, everything was yummy-licious! (not great for the waistline but well...) This was subsequently followed by the watching of fireworks on the balcony as we counted in the New Year.

Though it was a pretty short trip for me, I actually had a craving for our usual Tan family return home meal of Fishball Noodles from Bedok South Hawker Center (i.e. Mee Kia Ta ai hiam). It must be due to the lousy airplane dinner and that I was hungry and craving for noodles. So off we went after picking up the car from home.. Here's proof of our greed and my first bowl of fishball noodles since coming back to Singapore.

My sis's fav... bbq chicken wings

Christmas Feasting

Here are the photos of Christmas feasting at our house this year...Sorry, dont have inspiration to write anything so just enjoy the photos yeah?

1. My Sister's Christmas Gathering for her friends

The girls

Home Made Garlic Bread

'Mayo Prawns'

2. Our usual Christmas Eve dinner with Koko Jane and her family as well as Ah Chek.

Kerela Chicken (Indian Style)

Calamari

Pomelo salad (yumi-licious!)

Honey Baked Ham (how can you not have Ham right?)

Christmas Chocolate Cake

KoKo Jane and Grandma

jie and I taking a self-portrait before dinner starts

Xmas Lunch

Christmas is a busy time for my family. We have the usual get together on both sides, parties we organise for our friends (depending on the time we have) as well as the numerous gatherings, presents etc. to look into.

It is a tradition of my Mum's to bring her parents for a Xmas lunch. This year, she brought them to the Olive Restaurant at Hotel InterContinental for a buffet lunch. It was quite a large group this year as our whole family went (thats 4 of us) plus my 2 cousins. So that was 6 adults and 2 children.

There was a ton of food to eat, from sushi, smoked salmon, salads, assortment of cheeses to turkey and ham (it is christmas), soups, main courses and of course deserts! it was just too much food and over indulgence.. oh and we had free flow of orange juice and lemonade plus coffee and tea!

Didnt take any photos of the food guys sorry about that cos i think it's a little rude to be taking photos of food at nice restaurants.. Anyway, here's a photo of my grandma with Trisha. and another one of the 4 of them.


Being extremely full from lunch, all i had for dinner was this drink at Starbucks called Carrot Medley which looked dubiously orange.

Anyway, ordered it while Tingni had a quiche and a much needed coffee while we chatted before attending a free accappella concert at the Esplanade by Agapella (i think thats how it's spelt) where i also met Christine, Huaiyang and the FR boys all doing their own thing but all happening to be at the same place.. funny...

food, food and more food

Singaporeans are well fed folks. They love their food, love trying new places, love the satisfaction of finding good and cheap eats. For the foodies at heart who happen to be bloggers as well, they blog and take photos about it to share with other Singaporean foodies via the world wide web.

this recent surge in food bloggers is great. If you want to try something new, just hop online to one of their blogs and you will find all sorts of restaurants reviewed depending on whose blog you go to. Some focus on cheap Singapore fare, like hawker centers, coffeeshops etc. while others are more what we call 'atas' in Malay, with their almost daily entries about the newest restaurant in Singapore, the best place for Italian, brunch, ambience, chilling out, kids friendly, tea selections, English tea with scones and cake, buffets etc. The lists goes on and on...

What's more, if you are craving for say, a particular food and you are 'gian' to try a new place instead of going back to your usual kopitiam downstairs or your usual Western restaurant, just go to the blogger's categories and let your eyes and your taste buds and salivation test lead you to a tried and tested scrumptious meal.

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be posting their blog links here but i'm pretty sure you can look for them by just googling and using the right key terms. say for example, food reviews + singapore + blogspot How do i know? Because I have been done it before!

Yes, i admit the Tan family and the Doc are benefiters. These passionate bloggers, who love to write, eat and very importantly take photos with good cameras (must have micro function) have made it easier for us to try out new places with better satisfaction.. more hits and fewer misses. Even before the era of blogging, we have been a family to try new places based on recommendations by word of mouth or via the media or credit card promotions. While these methods of knowing still remains the general means for the older folk in the family, the younger folk have embraced the power of food blogging, especially one Tan in particular (not me).

Since I'm not exactly a foodie (i still am in comparison to others but not as great as the other extreme) I dont really find joy in reading them unless a reasons calls for it. Reading these blogs actually makes me hungry and I dont wish for that..

But since I like to eat at new places and bring the Doc to interesting places on weekends for his 'da chi da he' (translation: big eat big drink) i admit i have been 'leeching' / 'sponging' off this Tan's wealth of information on good places to eat for the past few weeks and over-indulging in rich food.

With Chris and Jilyn, I went to The White Rabbit, My sis and the Doc to Riders Cafe, the Doc to Tampopo, and with all the above to Persimmon Cafe. All these were done in the span of 2 weeks so you can imagine how much rich food i have eaten considering that the one person who went for all 4 was ME!

1) The sign just at the bend before entering into Riders Cafe Carpark

2) The entrance

3) The Doc's Full Breakfast /Brunch 4) Pancakes (very yummy)

5) Chris & Jilyn at Persimmon

6) Lovely table for 20 at Persimmon with orange chairs. We actually saw Nadya Hutagalung using this table for her jewelery sale while we were there... we all declared her to be a beauty! 7) The Doc and I - being silly

8) My sis , looking extremely pleased and happy after her Standard Chartered Run and of course her pasta dish in front of her.
9) One of the many dishes we had (it's an ala carte buffet), laksa pesto pasta

Sakae Sushi with mom and sis though not from the food blogs, was another meal that i would consider indulgence.

My mom and my sis's spontaneous pose as we walked to Big Splash via the underpass.

Decisions decisions...

same thing here.. decisions decisions
one of the sides i picked up from the conveyor (so so only)

But well, it's all done.. the food has been eaten, taste buds have been tingled and money has been spent. The company that i went with for all the above enjoyed themselves tremendously so I would say, its a good cause!

note from gracie-buddy: the other photos are in my compact camera so it'll come soon.. Akan datang!