Santas Are Here!

These Santas are for sale. This is new to me. How interesting and I wonder who buys them.

Thai Lunch @Nara

 

This is another unplanned place. We wanted to find a new Japanese restaurant elsewhere, but we ended up at Ion. DH wanted to try this Thai restaurant that has been the best Thailand's best restaurant since 2006. It's only opened in September thisImpressive. Prices are a little bit on the higher size. I really wished that we had tried different dishes, but I went with someone who is so comfortable with eating the same dishes every time we go to a Thai restaurant. Pad Thai and Green Curry Chicken. Originally we were not going to have Green Curry Chicken, but I could see that DH was dying for it. (Sigh....)

 

Pad Thai. $14.9 for chicken and $15.9 for Prawn. I am not impressed with the presentation. Where are the chilli flakes and the sugar?  We asked for the Chilli flakes and were then given. In terms of taste, their Pad Thai was very ordinary. t's good that it was not that oily.

 

Their Green Curry  is better, $13.9. The sauce is nice but it's a bit challenging to find the chicken pieces. Lacking of them, I must say.

I suggested this dish, Crispy Fried Morning Glory and Prawns with Chilli Sauce Dip. $12.9. I never saw this on the menu before. Yes, they are deep-fried, but they are yummy. The best part is actually their chilli dip. It has a good balance of spiciness and others and it makes me want more.  So good.

Ya Hua Bakut Teh

We had been eye-ing this place for a long time but we never really made it until recently. We came early before 12PM to make sure we could get a parking spot nearby. My favorite was actually the bean curd dish. Delish!

Shrimp Crackers

 Deep fried. But I lovvveeee.

Dinner @Canele

This was from about two weeks ago. We had dinner at Canele, Paragon, because we got an invite to dine for free for two people. With two more people joined us, in the end, all of us had dinner here. My choice was Scallop Orange Salad above.

DH had Crab Meat Pasta above and Miss P picked Canele's Signature Chicken Cesar, below.

Miss K picked Pasta with Salmon with Pink sauce. The food was okay, but I doubt it will be a place that we will go back to for more. We have other places that we like better.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

It had been a while since we baked chocolate chip cookies. There's no particular reason, we were just taking a break from it. Miss K finally made some and stored them in the freezer recently. Whenever we wanted some, we took a few and baked them. We don't store the baked cookies, we ate them when they are fresh from oven at their very best. These are some that we baked this afternoon. So yummy.

Lemon Meringue Pie

This mini pie was one of many different desserts offered at Oscar's of Conrad Hotel. We had buffet lunch there today. We were stuffed indeed.

Layer Cake & Bika Ambon

Earlier this week, DH came back from Jakarta after attending several meetings, presentations and company visits and were gifted with these two favorite cakes of mine, Layer Cake (Lapis Legit or Kuih Lapis) and Bika Ambon. The layer cake is so out of this world, it is really yummy and it is one of the best ones I have tasted.

I actually prefer the original type of Bika Ambon, but we got a Pandan Bika Ambon, which was so well made too. Bika Ambon, despite its name (Ambon is a place in Indonesia), is famously originated from Medan and among the more popular traditional desserts in Indonesia. Both these cakes are heavily loaded with egg yolks and butter and all the sinful things.  Eat them in moderation, if I could. 

Skinny Pizza Dinner

Miss K and I had dinner after church last week, Skinny Pizza was the place we picked. It was unplanned and it turned out nice. We did not have to wait for a table and we did not overthink what we wanted to order. All decisions were made in a nick of time. We shared Grilled Figs with Parmesan Crumble Pizza and Fish and Chips. 

Sushi Tei, Ngee Ann City

Sushi Tei in Ngee Ann City has moved to 5th floor from near taxi stand where they were used to be. It's our first time to the new premise, we had lunch there last week. The Ootoro Sashimi above is excellent at $28/plate. DH ordered Unagi Rice. 

I ordered a plate or Enoki Salmon roll and one piece of Potato Croquette.  That's all. Good lunch.

Oh, Hello, Marcato!

The world has become a better place since Amazon began offering free shipping to Singapore. I started ordering and ordering and ordering for more things that I basically did not need, but I just want. At this rate, I am quite confident that in no time I will become one of Amazon's favorite customers from this country. I probably will soon become BFF with the UPS guy that delivers the goods to our door again and again.

Anyway, I finally ordered a Marcato pasta maker. Why not, huh? It's cheaper than buying from the stores here and nothing is better than fresh pasta, they say. I am excited that this little machine needs no washing. That is so cool. The best feature, ever. So good.

Miss P had the honor to use it for the first time. She made the dough by hand and it was a good work out. For her, of course. My workout was only on my index finger touching the iPhone screen to take pictures from time to time and giving her some unsolicited advices that she did not need. She knew what to be done and I did not. 

So here we go, we had fettuccine and tagliolini made in a bit of time. Not bad for a first try. 

Post #1570: Ciabatta Sunday

I baked two loaves of Ciabatta again yesterday. I don't know if I am going to keep on with this but so far I enjoy both making and eating them. And yes, this is the 1570th post! Whoa.

Shoe Shopping

We went out shopping for shoes, because we had to. Miss K needed a pair of proper business-like shoes for a conference that she is attending in Doha, Qatar next month. It's a conference that will be attended by many influential and reputable people in the world such as Boris Becker, Cherie Blair and many others as speakers. She got the pair that she needed and three more pairs that she could use as well, including one pair of those like the above, Toms lookalike! Might as well. We had invested our time in going out and if she was able to find multiple pairs that she liked for different occasions, she should get them. It was a productive couple of hours in the midst of super crowded Orchard road on Sunday. 

Little Butter Cakes

Back when we were in Japan and went around some shopping place, I bought a couple of silicone baking pans. I used them once or twice and put them away. I nearly forgot that I had them until recently. I used them to make these little butter cakes. I certainly like and the looks. And the taste too.

Decorating Begins...

Christmas decoration in the city begins by the end of October. Main streets like Orchard rd., are decorated with lights and Christmas ornaments. With these being done rather aggressively, how can anyone forget that Christmas is nearing. Shopping malls start erecting Christmas trees inside or outside or in both of, their buildings. Ngee Ann City, where Takashimaya shopping center is, always puts a giant Christmas tree in the Atrium. This picture is this year's tree. There's a high chance that I will have a picture or two in front of the tree, as I did in the past, even though I do not care that much. I do not know why I still do it anyway. The tree is too big too ignore when one passes by. Maybe.

Crystal Jade Paragon - Lunch

DH and I had lunch in Crystal Jade in Paragon last month. It's hard to believe that it has been more than a month already. Time goes by so fast, faster than I could keep up with. Anyway, DH also had a bowl of fish porridge for himself. I had my favorite barbecue pork pastries above. We made sure we had a  vegetable dish and we had the long bean dish that we order often. Overall, it was nice, homey and quite a simple enjoyable afternoon with him.

Crodos

Cronuts, for Americans and maybe the rest of the world,  are now here. Gastronomia created and called theirs as Crodos. Basically they all are croissants in the shape of donuts and have taken the pastry by storm?? Yes, they are now available in Singapore, $4.90 each! Yay or nay? I am indifferent.

Jamie's Italian Kitchen, Singapore

Jamie's Italian Kitchen has opened in Singapore and just like everyone else, we (I, reluctantly, because we just went to the London one!) also joined the crowd and tried their food and drink. Our reservation was made a long while back and it was for mid October. 

We had a couple of pasta dishes that were not too impressive, I was told. They were somehow a bit over-seasoned.

We shared fried calamari which we quite like, but we thought it was a little expensive. I stuck to my favorite, Baked Mushroom and a shared side order of Roasted Pumpkins, Beets and Squash.

Another dish that we shared was Arancini (Risotto Balls).

For desserts, my lil companion wanted Panna Cota and I wanted to compare their Tiramisu with those I had earlier. This is my third time ordering Tiramisu and it never really tastes the same. The best one I had among the three, was the first one. I had it in Westfield Sheperd Bush with DH. It was perfectly boozed....