Birthday celebration with Irritants

Celebrated my birthday with the irritants on Tuesday as Lau Pa Sat, luckily i chose this place as i was late for an hour due to work. So happy to see them again as we hardly have group meetings recently due to one another's tight schedule. The last time i saw them was months back where we had mahjong session at ah di's house. I think the next time i will see them will be when the balloon bursts. =)

Ah Di, thanks for organising and to those who remember..... For those who dont remember, no worries lah i wont blame you for that hehe =) I will forgive those who are honest... and maybe those who are not but overseas??? Muhahahahah

A little sweet gift from Di, brownies from The Brownie Factory and colourful macarons from Baker's Inn to brighten up the brownie. The pic looks so nice hor?

Ramen Sant0uka @ Central

Met up with my primary school friends, Hui and Ting, for my birthday celebration and we went to Central for dinner as i want to try out Sant0uka Ramen which Hui felt that it is better than M1haru.... It is a rather small place besides B1lly B0mbers and the place is packed so we have to wait for about 15 mins for a table.

I had Tokusen Toroniku in Shio soup base, this is known to be the best as read from other food blogs as the pork is super tender which i agree. But not sure if i had too much ramen recently, i dont really find it that fantastic.

Hui had Char Siew Shio Ramen as she finds me a little too salty for her taste... As Ting is super late, we finished our food when she reached and given that she is not a ramen fan, we went elsewhere for her dinner and desserts.

We ordered the egg as our Ramen does not come with it, this costs us $1 each and from the looks of it, it is NOT nice at all as it is fully cooked.

We ordered gyoza as our side dish, nothing spectacular... Wanted to eat something else on top of this but apparently their main focus is Ramen, so there is not much side dishes nor desserts...

Thanks Hui for the treat and both of you for the gifts bought for me during your Taiwan trip!

Tanjobi Omedetou

There is only one day in a year other than xmas and new yr when you will get tonnes of messages over night... Woke up early in the morning even though i am on leave and saw 7 unread messages on my phone, followed up by those phone calls and msgs throughout the day. Thanks to all for remembering =)

Had my birthday celebration with cousins last week and here's that i have got from them.... Assorted birthday cakes from Goodwood park and capitaland vouchers coz they have no idea what to get for me.

Colleagues also celebrated my bdae for me and from the pic, you can know how old i am this year =) oh mine, three more years i will hit the 30s. I was given the choice to chose my own cake so i got myself a Passion Fruit Meringue from Pattisier which i simply love and all thanks to taya for making the way down to Ann Siang to collect it.

Last yr, i told them that it was my last birthday year being single and this year they were telling me that this is my last birthday before a new addition. Times really flies.

BE bot me this for my bdae present as i have always wanted a white watch to wear for my weekends and he also planned the itinery for this special day.

We went to Orchard in the afternoon to do some more shopping before i become too clumsy and had Pepper lunch for lunch - i simply love their beef steak (previously known as Shimofuri beef) as it is tender even after having it well-done as it has marble fats in the meat.

Then we went around shopping at DFS, Scotts Isetan, Taka for my diaper bag... When we were at Agnes B, Junie appeared and gave me a surprise shout, it was so loud that most of the ppl in the shop knew that it was my bdae. It was such a sweet touch as she managed to get BE's mobile and liaise with him to find out my whereabouts so that she can appear in front of me with Hokkaido eclairs. As it is still early for her appt, she joined us for shopping and tea at a cafe in Taka (Royal something...) Never really notice the existence of this place which is just besides Burberry level 2.

BE specially made dinner appt at Gr@ze located at Rochester Park as it is known to have nice ambience.

Outside
Inside

Love the outside but given the humid weather condition, we had a seat inside with aircon instead. Their service is recommendable as i was given a pillow to support my back which is so thoughtful of them. Before deciding on what to eat, we were asked if we will like to have sparkling or still water so we had still water instead still water which costs us $9 *ouch*. For dinner, I chose an entree of duck liver pate and wild mushroom risotto and BE had crispy hand-rolled pork hock. Both of us didnt find the food fantastic, not sure if this is bcoz we went there with a full stomach? or it is really not nice? We decided to give their dessert a try and chose Chocolate Creme Brulee which is not too bad but a little too sweet for his liking.

Our verdict - super nice ambience only and this is how I spend my special day..........

世上只有妈妈好

Have you ever wonder why we can be so rude or inpatient to our parents especially our dear mother even though we know that they are so dear to us and they are really doing things for our own good?

-------> Coz we are taking them for granted

I always know that i have a very good, patient, no temper mama but she is just a little blur blur and silly. Given her virtues, we tend to bully her as we know that she will not scold us back or be angry but she will definitely be hurt and sad as she is a 容易受伤的女人 just like me. She will keep her anger and sadness to herself and maybe weep when no one is around. Sometimes i really feel rather remorseful seeing her like that..... Anyway this hardly happens nowadays as i know that being a mother is not easy and I tend to treasure her more. Plus the fact that I dont stay with them anymore, I love and miss her more.

For all the wednesday dinners she is preparing for us, i know that she is a perfect mama always put others before her - thinking of what to cook for me and BE so as to ensure that it suits our taste and we will have enough food. Our meal will always come with at least 3 main dishes with a soup and desserts or snacks after meal.

Recently i was complaining to her of the washing for baby clothes and she asked me to bring all over for her to wash which i find the statement super sweet and touching. How will i bear to see her doing all these chores for me when it shld be my turn to take it up?

I also chat with Junie abt it and she has the same sentiments as well.... Guess all mamas are rather poor thing....

Bottomline - we must learn to treasure them before we regret.

Junie's super belated birthday

Junie's birthday was early this month but didnt manage to catch up with her for celebration till today.... Was cracking my brains about what to get for her??? Since we will be meeting at Gallery hotel to have Miharu ramen, i suddenly recall tat there is this nice looking chocolate place at Central ---- Gobi so i check out their website. They have alot of mouth-watering pictures on their website and i decided to make a trip there before dinner.

Here's what i have gotten for her - a 12pcs box

From the left - Dark Angel, Smell the Rose, Sweet Something, Cupid, Love Boat, Opera

Even though this is for her bdae present, she is nice enough to share some with me, we had the dark angel (nice not-to-sweet chocolate cake), Sweet Nothing (i love this as the strawberry is fresh and it blends well with the macarons), Cupid (cannot really figure out what is this but guess it might be cheese cream with some flavouring?), Opera (not bad) and the mini macarons (nothing to wow about but nice).... In the end, she had only 7 left to bring home to enjoy hehe thanks Junie.

Actually meeting up with her is more of catching up as we have endless things to talk about so food for this time round is not the main focus. Anyway here's what we had...

Pork Belly which looks so oily and yucky but it doesnt taste like what it seems perhaps bcoz i am a fat lover.

Gyoza - nothing special but not bad as well.



Junie had cold ramen as recommended by her colleague as it has a more QQ feeling which i agree but she also tried to explain that it has a very "mee" taste which i am still trying to understand hehe


I had the Tonkotsu Ramen, something diff from the previous time but i cannot rem the differences between the two. Frankly speaking, didnt find it as nice as the first time i had their ramen maybe bcoz i have too little soup and too much mee and ingredients so in the end, my soupy mee becomes mee-gia dry (maybe becoz Junie took a couple of slurp as she prefers mine to hers hehe).

Then we waited at Gallery hotel till BE picks us up while we chat and chat again.....

Euro2008

Didnt really know that i can be soccer frantic till recently.... think partially is for the fun of it and partially trying to earn some milk powder money haha but in the end, i didnt make any as the dark horses win for most of the times.

Stayed up late for the Italy vs Romania with BE's friends drinking at home and tot Italy will win but they got a draw instead. There shld be one additional goal for Italy just before the half time but somehow or another the referee think otherwise and said it is an offside. haizzzz super irritating.... Anyway I got a laugh out of this match as the players in the same team bump onto each other with their head and caused one to be sent out due to his injuries and the other one to have a big plaster on his forehead. haha

The very first thing i will do each morning is to switch on teletext to check out the scores... I tot Portugal will win Germany but in the end, Germany defeated Portugal with 3-2. What happened? No more Christiano Ronaldo who earns GBP 20,000 per week with abt SGD 1000 per hour if i got the figures correct.

Next is the Croatia vs Turkey match... in terms of skills and the scores from previous matches, the former is so much better but think they are simply unlucky as most of the "expected" goals either hit the pole or got saved by the goal keeper. This match is the most exciting one which i have seen as they score a goal each at the very last minute of extra time and leads to penalty kickoff with turkey going into semis. I managed to watch the exciting last bit as i was awoken by BE who tried to cover me with blanket.

So from now on, only "pure" watching....

Swisscafe at Raffles City

Finally got a chance to meet up with Michie and Daffy.... after a previous aeroplane session due to work =) This time round, i manage to meet them but was late as usual... but it is not my fault. They wanted to see me in the balloon state before it got deflated next mth haha.

They walked ard and decided to go for this Swisscafe located in Raffles City. This place looks nice with the high ceiling and cosy ambience.

Here's the menu - we can go for either an appetiser with main course or dessert with main course @ $33 or an appetiser with main course and dessert @ $45. We had a hard time deciding what to eat especially for me as i try to stay away from those with liquor.

Me and michie had snails.... escargots with toast.... it is really yummy and the toast is good as well. Didnt really like bread but i can say that the toast blends well with the garlic sauce from the escargots. Definitely nicer than the French Stall with a much better presentation.

As for main course, i choose Tenderloin with mashed potatoes - really tender and fresh.

Michie had veal (baby cow) with cream sauce and rosti. Tender young cow but gets a little sick with the cream sauce at the end of her meal with a little too salty rosti which i think it tastes more like hashbrowns.

Daffy had veal as well but hers is veal rolled with bacon and some other ingredients with red wine sauce and rissoto to accompany her meal. Prefer hers to Michie's one as i simply love Rissoto (western style muay fan)

Daffy didnt had appettiser as she chose a dessert instead - Toberlone chocolate cheese cake. Looks yummy and tastes good also...

Had a great time catching up with them... i love such gatherings but given the change in status, work and family, it is really difficult to schedule a perfect time for everybody. After dinner, Michie was nice to send me home even though i no longer stay in the NE after picking up her "slightly" tipsy hubby.

Popeyes @ Sing@pore Flyer

Have been a fan of popeyes chicken since ah di introduced to me few years back when i had my first bite at airport terminal outlet.... but the place is a little out of the way unless we are going overseas or to fetch or send someone off.

One day, we realised that there is another outlet at Sing@pore Flyer... yuppie felt so happy so we decided to mark it down as one of our dinner venue. Dint really find the flyer spectacular especially after being on Londoneye as the cabin looks so insignificant and not really equivalent to the size of the wheeler however you will have a different feeling when you step onto the flyer building and have a full view of the flyer from the bottom, it looks not too bad after all.

The inside of the building is the Yakult forest, which is in lined to what our country is known for - clean and green... At the basement, there is another outlet for Seafood Paradise which is one of my fav seafood place with the creamy crabs.

But we chose this for dinner instead as this is what we are here for... We ordered the combo set of chicken and prawns and i prefer this place to the airport's as it is not so cramped and most imptly, it serves maple syrup as it goes well with the biscuit but the service was a little too slow.

Sapporo Ramen Miharu at Gallery Hotel

Had a busy week at work and feeling a little down recently so BE decided to bring me for something good after we knock off on Friday so i chose Sapporo Ramen Miharu as taya and Don have been telling me to check this place out given that i still miss Ramen which i had at Osaka.

We decided to take a stroll along the river from Liang Court to Gallery hotel, this place really brings back memories... Had a stay during our 5th yr anniversary, at that time, BE was still an undergrad hehe.

Miharu is situated at a little corner outside the hotel and there isnt any obvious signage showing that we got the correct place but it is really packed. It has a little resemblance of those authentic ramen shop in Japan and we chose the counter seats to add on to the feel. There were quite a couple of Japanese in the shop and we can hear the slurping sound from their consumption of ramen, this is to symbolise that the food tastes good!

The menu looks good and i had Miso Tonkotsu Special Blended Miso Pork Flavoured Ramen @ $13 while BE had Tokusen Tonshio Special Pork Flavoured blended with Salt @ @ $12.50.

Miso Tonkotsu Special Blended Miso Pork Flavoured Ramen

Tokusen Tonshio Special Pork Flavoured blended with Salt

My soup tastes SOOOOO yummy as the broth is thick, BE's one is not too bad either but it has a more salty look and taste given that it is blended with salt. I simply love it and this is definitely the next Ramen place till now to be comparable to those which we had in Japan. I am loving it and we finish all the ramen and soup and felt a little thirsty after that, most prob due to the MSG??? but it is still nice. I will want to go there again!!!

The always Kiddy Irritants

Hei was back for a week to visit her mummy who just went for her retina op... apologies for mistaking it as rectum as i couldnt really hear you well while communicating with your overseas line and hope ur mama is better.

Managed to arrange an Irritants meet up for steamboat dinner at Bugis and we had almost 10 attendees.... There are only the three of us who are females and frequently go out in the gang so we use our initials and term ourselves M.C.Q. With 'Q' in Japan for the past one year, we hardly have time together. Now given that she is back for a short while, we really had a happy time relinquishing the stupid moments... See how we play with ice cream and the ugly teeth which we have. haha

The gang is really sweet and protective given my current change in size as they will make sure that there is someone on my left, right, front and back when i cross the road, shout when there is stairs or water making me feel so princessy. Hehe =)

Why????

Have been encountering so many real life stories in life recently which left me thinking why mankind only treasure more when they are about to lose it and why god create man and yet let them suffer with illness???

A very rich lady who is very nice and amiable with no airs at all is suddenly diagnosed of stomach cancer. No one expect this when she complains that she always experience stomachache, the first thing which comes to their mind is she must have been eating the wrong stuffs. She went for an op earlier and took out a part of large intestine to test but wasnt able to find anything wrong even though she was in a well known hospital, so they just gave her some pills and then monitor her condition. After some time, she suffered from severe stomachache again and this time round, her family decided to go to another hospital and got her those renowned doctors and it was then she is only left with 6-9 mths of life. Everyone in the family including close friends were affected and the only way out is to do chemotheraphy and hope it can prolong her life but she is in ICU after the chemo dosage increase.

The once chirpy and fun-loving husband who always spend his nights entertaining his clients and went home drunk now looks so tired and sad. He said this to me -"My wife can enjoy life now and go traveling with me given that she already has grandchildren but....... Seeing her in such pain really hurts me, i just wonder why heaven wants to do this to her when she did nothing wrong. How i rest well when she is not sleeping besides me now but in the hospital suffering. I dont mind the money spent as long as she can recover. If ever that we discover earlier during her initial hospital stay, things will not be like this."

His words really sound like those in drama series but this is really the thoughts and feelings of any family members who have ever encounter this.

I always believe in this and have this in all my phone welcome message to act as a form of reminder

Treasure every little moments....

Steps to eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cup

BE got Reese's Peanut Butter Cup from his colleague who went overseas and he was super excited that he got this and sms me to tell me his plan on how we should eat it.

Step 1 : Go home and watch 50 First Dates, his fav movie which he has watched for over 10 times and I have watched about 5 times before and after marriage.

Step 2 :Must watch till Adam Sandler says "I had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup....."

Step 3 : I can then open up and eat it.....

Wedding Dinner at Marina Mandarin

Was invited to my dear friend's big day on Labour Day... Why she chose this day???? coz his hubby's family all got married on 1st May... rather unique reason and all of them might celebrate their anniversary together next time. Almost all my NUS kakis got married except one who is still waiting for the HDB balloting. =)

Was impressed by the refurnised look of the ballroom especially the food, we got ourselves a menu each right in front of us instead of having one to share around.

As usual the wedding started off with the couple march in and then serving of food. They chose to arrange for the waiters to dance with the music first before serving so all of them walked in with the cold dish and then head to the stage to do a small dance which looks rather cute, this is the second time i saw this arrangement at wedding dinner.

Couple's second march in with bubbles... looks very fairy-like isnt it? Frankly speaking, i almost cannot recognise the bride as she looks so different from normal days without much make up and hardly wear skirt and be so lady like hehe

Before we left for the day, here's our last dish - mango sago with HUGE ice cream...

Myanmar Cuisine

Myanmar cuisine is never in my consideration but we had it when we were too hungry walking along peninsular...

Went thru the menu and find that the food is similar to thai's but the ingredients in it is different. I chose kuay teow with seafood (to be on the safe side) and BE had this potato with peas rice with fried chicken and this comes with the soup of the day. My food was pretty similar to phad thai but BE's one is like sticky rice with super dry chicken and the soup tastes like "long kou" water.....

Haha this is indeed an experience for us but we doubt we will go there again.....

A Relaxing Day out.....

Got two days off from work. decide to pamper myself on a weekday with lesser crowd.

Woke up as usual as the inbuilt alarm clock just simply cannot switch off during off days, ordered MacDelivery as it was raining cats and dogs. We had McGriddles, something which we always wanted to try while listening to radio advert to work everyday. It was not too bad but will get a little sick after finishing the whole burger as it is both sweet and salty, a combi of hotcakes and big breakfast. After breakfast, we took a short nap, not wanting to waste the perfect sleep-inducing weather.

It is time to wake up for our spa appointment at holland V, managed to book a last minute appointment the day before... $138 for two with 60 mins aromatheraphy massage and 30 mins heat rub for BE and 90 mins prenatal massage for me. It is rather comfy and relaxing as i had been experiencing backache during the third trimester. However i will still prefer those 'bones-breaking' massage such as thai or swedish. As for BE, poor him had to endure the heat from the hot stones which he dont find it enjoyable at all.

Opposite the spa is my fav jap bread shop where i bot the mini choc croissant bread, bread stuffed with thick and yummy choco cream, milk bread, curry bread.... it tastes super nice and has a really soft texture.

Walked down the street wanting to have a cup of coffee at a cafe, chose NYDC but the place was simply stinking as the ventilator was not working well so we decided to chose something else and we found this.....

This is similar to ice cre@m chef at East Coast Road, with a bigger variety of ice cream and toppings. I had caramel and ferrero mixed with graham crackers while BE had his long-wanted bubble gum and strawberry mixed with nerds.

As we were still early for dinner, we shopped ard Holland V and didnt find any interesting places. Next, we head down to Little India to The French Stall, a place which we always pass by and wanted to try. Service was a little bad as we went there slightly earlier than their official opening hours. Anyway it reminded us of France where we had escargots after viewing Effiel Tower.

Here's what we ordered.... French Onion soup and Escargots with herb and butter as starters. Was a little surprised to see how the escargots was being served as i expect it to come with the shell. The soup tastes good especially with the two bread topped with cheese.

Our Main course - Pork chop with gratin potato and Beef with fried potato - doesnt look impressive and taste so-so.

Dessert - Chocolate souffle and dark chocolate cake... average for both.........

We were most impressed with the soup and happy that we finally checked it out this place. Not sure if we will go again but definitely not in near future.

Thats the end of our relaxing day..... It is still off day tomorrow but it will be spent with mama instead.