Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

A comedy with loads of bullsh*t from two heterosexual guys, whose egos are bigger than they admit.

( Some spoilers... )

After a week's hiatus from running, decided I couldn't procrastinate anymore. So I texted Hubba while having a meeting (oops) to tell him that I was gonna run tonight, and he could join me if he wanted too.

As usual, Hubba was gamed, coz it gave him a chance to train up for his coming IPPT. However, as both of us were caught up in meetings, it meant that we would be running round the estate rather than at the sports stadium. Which was fine by me, coz I wanted to see if I could run at least 2.4km without the usual warm up walk to the stadium, as what I was used to doing.



As a whole, didn't find the run that bad, despite a week's hiatus. Stamina was still good and I would have gone on further, if not for Hubba having finished his sprint-endurance training super early.

Total distance: 2.74km
Time: 20'04"
Pace: 7'18"/km
Calories: 169

After the work out, we set off for a late dinner. Originally, we had decided to have prata and briyani at Simpang Bedok. But en route, we changed our minds and decided to try this cosy place along Jalan Pari Burong called Foo House, which my dad had once recommended some time back.

The interior was rather homely, and had this lovely retro feel about it.





Despite having just ran, I wasn't that hungry. It took us some time to decide on what we wanted order, which is a first for us, since I usually decide the fastest.


Hubba's Root Beer Float


My Hamburger Steak, with mashed potatoes and extra side of caramelized onions


Hubba's order of Hainanese Pork Chop with rice and bak choi


My non-alcoholic Mojito, with loads of lovely mint sprigs

The food was super delicious, and it made Hubba a little sentimental, as the pork chop reminded him of his late grandma's cooking. Although not presented in some "atas" way, the cooking however had this homely feel about it, and it made me feel like the food was made with lots of love. This was probably also contributed by the very homely atmosphere as well, as the decor around us was made up of things one would usually see in used as decor in someone's home. The feel-good emotion and yummy homely food was enough to earn a thumbs up from Hubba and me, and we both knew this would definitely not be our last visit to this makan place.

Just when we were totally filled up and waiting to pay up, I spied on a rather interesting poster behind me, that very much described what I would have loved to ingest after the very filling meal:

Very fitting for people like us who have just finished indulging and have problem digesting.

Place: Foo House Pub & Cafe
Address: 6 Jalan Pari Burong
Tel: 6445 3110

With our original lunch plans to meet up with some friends postponed last minute as someone was unwell, we decided to try out this new ramen store, Yoshimaru Ramen Bar, at Big Splash instead.

Hubba had gone to the main branch at Holland Village with his colleagues and was won over by the way they did their boiled eggs (the egg is done such that the yolk has just nicely congealed into gel whilst retaining a nice orangy colour, the way I love my eggs done) that he knew I would love it too.


The interior of the ramen bar


Hubba's choice: DIY Hakata Ramen with soft boiled egg and Takana (Japanese version of giam cai)


My choice: Moridakusan Ramen (All-in): comes with soft boiled egg, Takana, seaweed, cloud ear mushroom, Meitaiko, on top of the basic char siew


Chicken Gyoza (they also have prawn gyoza)

On a whole, we were super happy with the ramen. Was the closest to the ramen we had in Sapporo Ramen Alley, in my opinion, and miles better than Ajisen's ramen. I think coz they use less MSG and less oil, so on a whole, the ramen isn't so jerlak. Highly recommended to try, if you near either of the branches.

Place: Yoshimaru Ramen Bar
Branch we visited: 902 East Coast Parkway Blk B #01-12, Playground @ Big Splash, S(449874)
Tel: 63463132
Main branch: 31 Lorong Liput, Holland Village S(277742)
Tel: 64633132

Yeah... super belated by one month, but better late than never. Didn't get to celebrate it last month coz Hubba and I had just come back from Spain, got ostracized by everyone who was worried about getting H1N1, and subsequently I got home quarantined for a mild bout of cold.

Pops got a flyer on the durrian buffet cum international buffet at Carlton Hotel, and we just set our minds to meeting up with my in-laws on the pretext of the belated Fathers' Day Dinner that never happened last month. Since food was delicious, I didn't take any human photos, coz most of the group had to adjourn to the al fresco area to eat the actual durians. So instead, here are the foodie pics for all to drool over.

( Pics under the cut )

Verdict: Scrump-licious! Worth the $$$. Even a non-durian fan like me (got a phobia of durians after falling sick with stomach flu due to over-consumption), I still enjoyed the durian desserts very much!
Place: Cafe Vic @ Carlton Hotel

My bad again... another delayed entry. Just coz my weekend was a little more packed than usual. But better late than never I think...

This book is one of my favourite books in the Harry Potter series, as it actually starts explaining some of the more curious events in the previous books and helps culminate to the ultimate showdown of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. However, somehow me thinks the movie version didn't quite do justice to the book.

Beware: Loads of spoilers under the cut.
( More here )

Overall I think it's still worth the watch if you're a Harry Potter fan like me. I'm just wondering whether they downplayed the more happening portions of this book just to avoid having it overshadow the last book? I dunno... but after this installment, they better make sure they do justice to the last book.

Picked Hubba up from work today after my appointment and we decided to try out something new at Rochester Park.

Here's what we had:



We also had the chilli ice cream... which was totally consumed before I even remembered to take a photo of it. :P

The food was yummilicious! My ribeye was superbly done and even the fats were so good, I cleaned the plate (with Hubba's help). Hubba's ribs met his standard as well, as he almost literally licked every last morsel from his plate. The chilli ice cream was a nice surprise. Pleasantly cold at first, you don't quite taste the chilli taste till it slides down your throat. And then wham! The chilli hotness hits you at the throat, though pretty subtly. Really amazing!

Only bummer was that pricing was a little on the steep end, as our dinner cost us more than $100, inclusive of drinks (a glass of Sangria for Hubba and a Shirley Temple for me), and of course tax and service charge. But I guess, that's probably expected since Rochester is seemingly marketed for those with deeper pockets, I should say.

My take: Do visit them if you feel you have the extra cash to spare. One should always treat oneself whenever possible, I say.

Place: North Border Bar & Grill
Address: 2 Rochester Park Singapore 139213
Tel: 6777 6618
Website: http://www.northborder.com.sg

Never got to watch the show, coz Hubba had gone with his colleagues for this show and said it sucked.

But I think the story must have been pretty good for it to be made into a movie so I decided to get my hands on the books instead.


Picture taken from Wikipedia

Just completed reading the first of the trilogy, Inkheart, a couple of days ago and I must say, the book really captivated me. Like most good stories, the chapters all ended on cliffhangers, leaving the reader with the utter desire to read on to find out how the story would unfold. Something I think that the magic of the movies might not be able to capture, I guess.

Captivating as the story was, I was disappointed with the end. Maybe the author went out of steam, or maybe it was intended to originally be a one-of book with no sequel. The end was pretty anti-climatic, and didn't resolve for quite a few characters, or so I felt. Maybe that's why a sequel came out, and a third one after that.

Anyway, just started off on the second book, Inkspell, last night and let's see what this one has to offer to resolve the unresolved matters in Inkheart.

We made a trip down to town yesterday to enjoy our first film art movie of the month - "Anvil: The Story Of Anvil".

Before that, we had to desperately look for a place for dinner, and Hubba dcided to go to Chijmes to look. Unfortunately, loads of places were not open till 6:30pm, and so Hubba made a quick decision to dine at Lei Garden.

To keep things simple, so that we could make it back to the National Museum for our show, we ordered only the following:



Somehow, perhaps it was our anxiety to finish dinner on time so that we could make it back to the show. I didn't quite enjoy the meal as much as I would. We had to wait quite a while before our food was served, typical restaurant wait, and instead of savouring the food, we were both attacking the food quickly. But on the whole, I must admit we made the right choices. The eggplant was pretty well done, steamed to perfection, and the sauce added was just nice, not too overwhelming. The beef was also terrifically done, made so nicely that the meat just melted in your mouth, with a nice balance of meat and fats. Only thing that didn't really meet my expectation was the ee-fu noodles, which was a little too dry. Perhaps coz I just asked for simple stir-fry with chives and mushrooms.

Dinner cost us a hefty $81 for juz three dishes though. Something that made Hubba regret choosing the place a little too hastily.

However, we still managed to rush to our film screening at the National Museum, and boy was the film good. The entire story was about the band Anvil, and how, due to a combination of bad luck, lousy management and chance, they didn't really make it as big as they ought to have, compared to peers of their time like Bon Jovi and Metallica. The music was good as well, as Hubba was so hyped up that he kept humming the chorus of "Metal on Metal" after the show ended.

We didn't want to end the night too early, so we decided to head down to Timbre to have a drink and snack before heading home. Imagine 2 almost-fogies hitting the bar with all the youngsters around us, especially since we had not pubbed in while. I managed to convince Hubba to let me drink, and I got for myself a strawberry frozen margarita, while Hubba chose some drink called Purple Haze, which was pretty sweet. Food looked good, but since we had a $81 dinner still digesting in our tummies, we decided to settle for just a basket of fries.

I have to admit, my alcohol tolerance seems to have dipped. I barely made past half the cup of margarita when I started to feel the flush. Worried that we might bump into the mobile squad on the way home, I reluctantly passed the rest of my drink to Hubba to finish up for me, even though I knew I wouldn't get drunk just with one glass of margarita.

Oh well, at least it was a fun Saturday. Am so looking forward to next Sat, when we get to watch the film screening of "How To Be".

Hubba and I worked slightly later than normal on Thursday, and since the ever diligent Hubba wanted to go to the library after work, we decided to eat out and try Manpuku, the new Japanese Food Hall Concept at Tampines One.


Photo taken from Manpuku website.

As usual, the place was super duper crowded, and we had to wait for a while in queue before we were shown our table. Thankfully, since it was only 2 of us, it wasn't as long a wait as we thought it might be.

The place has quite a huge selection of Japanese food: from typical ramen, sashimi, and soba/udon stores, to Japanese curry rice, Japanese spaghetti, yakitori, and omu-rice. There is also a nice selection of typical Japanese desserts and cakes. The queues were ridiculously long too... thankfully Hubba and I always had the good sense to ask how long it would take and move on to order other stuff before returning for our order. Here's some of what we had:



Somehow, I think after having visited Japan, Hubba's and my standards of how Japanese cuisine should taste has been raised. Somehow, I didn't think the ramen really tasted close to the actual Hokkaido Butter Corn Ramen: too much oil from the soup, too much msg, and not enough butter. The sashimi was really not as fresh as it should have been; Shokudo at Raffles City has better standard of sashimi freshness in this case. As for the yakitori, I think Tori-Q's yakitori tasted better, in terms of marinade.

On the whole, Hubba and I weren't that impressed. Unless left with not much choice, I highly doubt we would make a return visit any time soon.

We set off early this morning to pay our respects to Grandma and Grandpa at the temple today, as it was their death anniversary.

When all was over, we set off to Pek Kio Food Centre for lunch. Mummy and Pops had mentioned about the yummy prawn noodles at this food market before but I had never gone there as it was pretty hard to travel to by public transport. With all the gastric juices flowing after all the raves, we reached there ready to devour the food the moment it was set on the table. Hubba also went around scouring for side dishes and came by a popular store selling carrot cake.


Prawn noodle soup and fried carrot cake

Food verdict:
Prawn Noodles: The prawn noodles was really delicious, as they had some extra ingredient added to the soup that was mixed with the fried onion. The prawns were humongous and really fresh as well. The soup was so tasty that if not for me being worried about thirst later, I would have drunk up the entire bowl of soup. Pops lapped his entire bowl clean though, totally enjoying it.
Fried carrot cake: There were two fried carrot cake stores, but Hubba scouted and found the more popular one. The carrot cake was superb, rich in flavour and very fragrant. The black sauce that was mixed in was just nice, not too little, not too much. That enhanced the flavour of the carrot cake nicely. As for the portion of egg fried with the carrot cake, it was balanced rather nicely, such that all the pieces of carrot cake was well-coated with egg. A thumbs up to the chef.

Despite the inaccessibility of the place, I think Hubba and I would definitely go back there to taste the prawn noodles again. In fact, I had half an intention to try out the chicken rice and roasted pork store situated next to the prawn noodle store, that had hell of a long queue. Just that the thought of having chicken the entire day was a little too much to stomach, since I probably will be having chicken rice tonight at my in-law's place.

Oh well, just a place to note so that Hubba and I can come back to eat another time.

Place: Pek Kio Food Centre
Address: 41A Cambridge Road

Pops got a flyer for promotional Indian Fish Head Curry at $9 and immediately psyched Hubba and me to go with him to try out this new place. So we prepped ourselves for a heavy lunch today, and boy were the men satisfied at their find.


Click here for more photos.

Food verdict:
White rice: Very generous helpings were given, and the waiters kept coming round to ask if we wanted extra servings
Veg: A little stingy on this, I asked for a second helping but none was given
Papadum: A little stingy on this too... Pops asked for more servings and they only gave 2 extra pieces per person
Tulang: Totally didn't touch this, but the men seemed to enjoy themselves
Chicken Masala: Not bad, but serving was a little small
Prawn Masala: Totally spicy hot, made me drink loads of water to cool down all that spiciness
Mutton dum Briyani: Apparently good: Got the thumbs up by both men
Fish head curry: I liked the taste of the curry. But have to admit we all found the serving a little small. Perhaps that's why it was just $9.
Veepor: Very delicious... good aid for digestion
Mango Lassi: This was da bomb! Super concentrated and viscous, it really fed my craving for lassi to the max!

Not bad, all the food cost us less than 50 bucks. But as the saying goes, what you pay is what you get. Somehow I still prefer the fish head curry and the other dishes at Banana Leaf Apolo.

Place: Masala Hut
Address: 37 Chander Road
Tel: 6341 5101

Hubba and I had our regular dinner for two at Zen Cafe along East Coast Park. The last time we visited there was a long time ago, with my dad and my in-laws.

As usual, the chef did not disappoint us. With their promotions, we ordered a Zen "Kobe-like" Wagyu Beef set that came with a sashimi starter (Sashimi Revolution, which is the same as the one we had the last time we were there), soup, main course, dessert and drink. Hubba also ordered a serving of Zen Crabmeat Fried Mee Sua for his main, and the red wine ice-cream for his dessert.


Foodie Pics

Little did we realise, the serving for the promotion was so huge! We under-estimated the serving for two, since the last time we came, we were a little disappointed by the serving size. On top of that, Hubba's a la carte serving of the Fried Mee Sua was also equally humongous. We ate our fill though... not willing to waste the food.

Food verdict:
Sashimi Revolution: Still as terrific as ever. Love the tangy taste of the sauce.
Mushroom soup: Not the usual cream of mushroom. This was done more like a chinese soup, with typical herbs like yuzhu, wolfberries, and dried dates, giving it a very oriental flavour.
Crabmeat Fried Mee Sua: Not bad... seemed like a super popular dish with most customers. However, I found the mee sua a little too overdone, and the crabmeat in the soup a little too fishy for my liking. The overall starchiness also caused one to start feeling bloated pretty soon.
"Kobe-like" Wagyu Beef: As excellent as ever. No change in the standard of this dish... and the way the mashed potato was done, it acted like a sauce for the beef. Really superb.
Red wine ice-cream: This was something new for us; never though ice-cream could have a red-wine flavour. Pretty nicely done too, the alcoholic red-wine taste was not over-powering, and it really did make Hubba crave for more.
Tiramisu: Still as terrific. Seemed like they up-ed the alcoholic content, but the mascapone cheese and the airiness of the mousse portion was still as excellent, allowing the tiramisu to just melt in one's mouth.

Overall... don't mind coming back here again, if ever I feel like eating Kobe beef, or red-wine ice-cream. Not that convinced to try the other dishes though, since Hubba was not impressed with the mee sua.

Set off early down to Esplanade to pick up our tickets for of Montreal before heading for dinner.

Hubba originally wanted to try out some pizza place at Suntec, but as time was tight, we settled for some yummilicious Japanese pasta at CityLink's Shokudo Japanese Pasta & Pizza.



Hubba had the Hokadate Basil Spaghetti, while I had the Japanese Oyster & Ham Pasta with Wafu sauce. We also tried their cheese tofu cake and sesame seed ice-cream with Japanese red bean paste and mochi for dessert. Really delicious! Personally, I think Hubba would go back to try to Japanese pizza, since he didn't really fulfill that desire for pizza today.

Thereafter, we set off to the theatre studio for the main event of the evening, of Montreal. As usual, most of the audience were Caucasians, but that didn't stop us from having a great time. Hubba got super excited and moved off from time to time to get a better view of the stage, coz other than the band, there was some interesting mime act going on during certain pieces. I just generally enjoyed myself from where I was, coz the music was really great. Only thing I could have kicked myself hard was forgetting to bring my camera to catch the band in action. Only managed to catch this really lousy shot with my handphone:



Needless to say, I'm now streaming their music from iMeem. Here's some cool music from their playlist:


Of Montreal

After the show, we headed to Max Brenner's to enjoy some sinful hot chocolate before calling it a night.

After my exhaustive two-day team building, I went out with Hubba to try out a new eating place at East Coast Park, called Twenty-Six. Dressed down in just berms and tees, little did either of us know that this was actually some posh place. Haa! We looked super under-dressed next to all the other diners at the restaurant.

Luckily for us, the waters did not turn us away. We walked straight in to the posh dining area and ordered our dinner from a selection of dishes whose pricing was almost at par with Garibaldi. :|

Here's what we had:


Goat's Cheese Tart | Homemade Seafood Raviolo | Pan-seared Salmon

Food was super scrumptious, especially the goat's cheese tart, that both Hubba and I cleaned out the plate. Hubba's salmon looked super good too, though on a personal note, I felt that the serving size was a little small, for the price. My raviolo on the other hand reminded both of us of Italian version of Chinese dumplings, even though it tasted quite ok.

Needless to say, this costly restaurant set us back nearly $100 just for our one starter and two mains. And both of us still had room for dessert thereafter.

After paying up, we headed down to the nearby Old Town White Coffee for good old-fashioned coffee. Hubba had the white coffee (which he said was a misnomer as it wasn't white), whilst I had a hazelnut coffee. Between the two of us, we also shared a serving of peanut butter thick toast.



The toast was pretty good, though I wished that the bread was slightly more crispy. Hubba was so in love with the peanut butter that he asked if we could buy a similar brand of peanut butter home during our next grocery shopping. Between Toastbox's version and this, I found the difference was that this was slightly sweetened with the addition of condensed milk on top of the peanut butter. However, I wished they had already sliced up the bread into small bite-sized pieces like at Toastbox for ease of eating; slicing the bread on our own with a not very sharp knife was not the easiest thing to do and the bread ended up getting dented/flattened in the process.

We will definitely come back to Old Town again to try out the other traditional breakfast/snack selection, but on a personal note, both Hubba and I felt that we would not go there for a normal meal as the menu selection for main courses really didn't appeal that much to us.

Hubba and I went to watch this show last night. The plot was good, something very unique, seeing someone born old and growing young.

( Some spoilers under the cut )

My take on the show: it's worth while watching it coz the plot is terrific and Cate Blanchett is spectacular. Of course, there's the bonus eye candy too. Just don't expect more than eye candy out of Brad Pitt.

The food bug in my husband kicked in today just before we were supposed to visit a friend who had just delivered (more in the next post). Like a walking food directory, the husband have cleverly managed to memorise all the restaurants listed in Life's 100 best dishes and wanted to cross one more place off the list. Destination: Vines Restaurant.

Here's what we had:

Lobster bisque, garlic bread, BBQ Pork Ribs (House Specialty), Forester Tenderloin, Apple Crumble

Food was pretty good. Lobster bisque was delicious, with terrific lobster-ry flavour. My steak was quite nice, though I didn't find any bacon in my tenderloin (was supposed to be served with mushrooms and bacon). Hubs ordered the specialty, which was the pork ribs and he found it really quite good. Apple crumble was very nice, though I found it not as crumbly as I liked.

All in all, an acceptable meal.

A historical kind of film about the Second World War. The film is about a young Jewish woman in the Netherlands who for the sake of survival, turns spy for the resistance forces after experiencing tragedy with the Nazis, in order to survive.

Terrific plot, scary in fact for some parts, especially on the ways of men. But really worth the watch. Makes me feel thankful that I'm born in this time and age when hopefully me and my generation and those born after us would not need to experience the kind of suffering the Jews had to go through.

Wow... this one just sets the standard for all the movies adapted from comics. And to think that you'd probably would get sick of all the comic adaptations coming out: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, Superman Returns etc. This addition to the Batman series really just raises the bar. With the terrific cast, the dark soulful Christian Bale as the title role, and the crazy psychopathic Joker played spectacularly by the late Heath Ledger (really a waste that he died before his prime), this is one show that no one should miss.

Now I definitely will buy DVDs of the Batman movies starring Christian Bale to collect. After all, with this show being played in the theatres, he is definitely going to be the most talked-about actor of the season.

The movie tells about the love life of a guy, Will Hayes, in flashbacks. He is made to tell it by his 10-year-old daughter, who is egging to know how her parents met and why they decided to divorce. He then proceeds to tell it to her in a form of a love mystery, where names of the people are changed, for her to guess which one is her mother. She in turn, eventually figures out to whom her father's heart belongs and helps work her magic to make her dad find his happy ending.

A love story that is totally sweet enough to melt the coldest of hearts. For even my guy, who isn't into romantic movies, was grudgingly intrigued by this show enough to not even budge from his seat during the entire 2-hour period.

Hubs got his craving to try out one of the restaurants listed in the Lifestyle's 100 Best Dishes, and so we headed off to Rochester Park to dine in high-class restaurants situated in colonial bungalows. The restaurant of choice: Min Jiang.

It was lucky we were there early for we had not made any reservations and according to the reservations list, the place was fully booked for the night! At that moment, we were possibly one of two or three customers, for it was just past 6:30pm, but the waitress was still kind enough to show us a table and even bring special little stools for our bags. Pretty neat.

( The rest of the long post here... )

All in all, this place is a must-try for foodies like us. You'll never be happy with the normal Chinese cuisine after a maiden trip here.