Last post for 2006 - Spa Esprit and Life Spa

This will be my last post for the year 2006. I started this blog on 1 Jan 2006 and focused on food, massages and everything nice. It was intentional not to post much personal stuff/thoughts on other matters as I post that on my other blogs. I didn't want to duplicate entries.

Year 2006 has been uneventful....tried out new restaurants and spas, and also went back to old favorites. I may have to change focus for Year 2007 as I am trying not to eat out so much now in a bid to be fitter and healthier (read = weight loss regime. Haha!).

I ended 2006 with a massage or two. I made an appointment at Spa Esprit for 29 December, but they called to cancel it as there was a fire in their outlet (I found out today when I went for my re-scheduled appointment).

I managed to get an appointment at Life Spa for 29 Dec instead. It was done by another therapist. Not as good as Lilian though. She was so "fast", I felt rushed by the entire experience. A good therapist will always use long, soothing strokes to create a feeling of languidness and relaxation. Another reason why Tui Na and Thai massages are not relaxing but are more "therapeutic" to hit the sore spots.

Strawberry Butter Meltdown - Spa Esprit Paragon

With a name like that, how could one not feel like being slathered and ready to be eaten? :p I first tried this treatment in 2005 on my birthday (courtesy of a special voucher from Biotherm). It was so good but so pricey too, for me to warrant paying $150 (?) for that. I remembered the strawberry scrub which smelled heavenly and sweet, followed by a shower and then the warm buttery massage. I felt like a cake!

I had another voucher for 50% off at Spa Esprit, so I decided to try the Strawberry Butter Meltdown again. The therapist "Susi" was fantastic! I really prefer Malay therapists as they are always much better than those from China. Plus they can speak English. Therapists from China usually only know Tui Na (or what they think is Tui Na as many are not professionally trained at all, just applied great pressure onto the body).

She asked if there were any particular areas that needed more attention, and I told her to focus on my shoulders. She started off with the massage - warm strawberried buttery cream or whatever was applied onto my body and she started massaging. It smelled so delicious that it was so tempting to want to taste the concoction. Lol. Susi just managed to hit all the right spots and there were times I drifted off to sleep. So rare for me to sleep during massages now.

After the massage was the scrub. More strawberries! I am not sure what went into the potion but there were bits of red (strawberries I assume) and some fine white particles for scrubbing. That was followed by a shower. There were 4 jets on the wall beside the handheld showerhead. Pretty cool option. Unfortunately the shower space is really tiny.

I am seriously considering if I should splurge on this and have it once every 2 months and have Susi work her magic on me.

Signing out:
Happy 2007, everyone!

1st Designer Bag Lemming

Prada Tessuto Gauffre (Pre-Spring 2007)

I am never really that crazy about designer bags or wallets, compared to some of my friends who are into them (LV, Gucci, Ferragamo, Dior, Celine, etc). Mainly because I have not really seen any designs which just called out to me. But now I am lemming for the latest Prada Pre-Spring 2007 Collection - Tessuto Gauffre. I first saw them in some women magazines and were attracted to the bright cheery colors. So different from the usual black nylon bags, and which there were so many fakes around.

No doubt there will be fake Tessuto Gauffres too....but they are just too nice to resist. Read from CC that there won't be many pieces being brought into Singapore and already the wait list for them is pretty long :( There are 3 sizes (S, M, L)... think I would prefer the biggest since I always carry lots of stuff and in either green, red or blue. I don't think orange and yellow are my colors and white gets dirty too easily. Not sure why but I am not so against orange now. Maybe I am so used to seeing it everywhere for work. We have been promoting "orange" as the color for most communication materials.

If there is an angel, maybe I will get it as a birthday present ;p

ETA: I saw the bags in real life at the Prada store. My lemming is kinda killed now. Didn't really like the green and blue bags, and I think medium sized would be better. I didn't really like the gold zips too. Lol. Don't think I will buy it but as a gift, I will still accept. Lol. Possibly in red or orange.

ETA (28/1/07): Went to Prada again, and looked at the bag. Lemming stirred again. I like the large sized, I was mistaken about the sizes previously. So large sized and in orange. Surprisingly I like orange. So not my color but it is so cheery and uplifting. It costs S$2370 or something like that and sold out island-wide. No more large sized in any colors here. Darn!

Kopitiam at Swissotel

We decided to try the fish head curry and claypot tofu for lunch at the Kopitiam at Swissotel. The fish head curry was the lemak (coconut-ty) type. It was still pretty good though I much prefer the assam version. I love the tangy taste mixing with the spices.


The pot was huge and was enough for 3 persons and had chockful of okras (ladies fingers) and eggplants (aubergines/brinjals) and tomatoes too.


The claypot tofu was good. The egg tofu were nicely braised and came with lots of vegetables though I would like it more if they had more mushrooms in there.

Gloria Jean's Coffees

Gloria Jean's Coffee made a comeback few months back with the first outlet at Raffles City basement. It used to be in Singapore in the late 90s (I think) but closed down a few years later. The coffee then was not as great as those in Australia.


This time round, the coffee is certainly more robust but it is still very sweet. I tried the Tuxedo cake based on the barista's recommendation. I didn't particularly like it. Found the cake to be dry and tough. The coffee was nice though I don't remember what I ordered. I like the way it was presented. Lovely.

O'Briens - Jelita Cold Storage

Click on image to see the crushed chips

This is utterly disappointing. I ordered the Christmas Sandwich (turkey, ham, cranberry sauce, stuffing, lettuce and coleslaw) and clam chowder for brunch yesterday.

Maybe I was expecting the kind of turkey sandwich served at Starbucks (which incidentally was absolutely amazing!) or even better, but I certainly didn't expect such dismal portion or presentation or taste.

They used turkey ham (not real turkey meat) and the coleslaw was dripping sauce all over. The stuffing was just miniscule crumbs that I could barely see or taste it. And the dealbreaker was the chips. The chips were all crushed up. I seemed to have been served the "leftovers" from the pack.

The clam chowder was not much better. Too salty and too much vegetables. It seemed more like a vegetable soup with pieces of clams added. Granted, it is not Boston style where it is creamier, but this tasted like something right out of a can.

I like O'Briens or I used to like it after this experience. O'Briens used to have very fresh sandwiches made on the spot when it first opened. Or maybe it is the outlet problem. I have been to outlets at CityLink, Millenia Walk and Raffles Place and the food was fine there. But the one at Jelita is just bad.

Billy Bombers - The Heeren

Classic poster

It has been such a long time since I last ate at Billy Bombers. Think the last time I was there was in 2003 at the inaugural branch at Bugis. This is a fairly new branch, opened since 2005 or so. We decided to try the food as not many eateries were opened then (close to 9pm).


Going back to basics. We shared a burger (think it was the mushroom burger) and hot wings. I had a root beer float too. The float was nice, then again, how wrong could it get? Root beer with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The hot wings were huge - look at the pieces. We were not expecting that. I thought it would be the usual small wings, not wings and drumlets too. The sauce was not too bad, at least it was a bit sourish spicy. The burger was a bit of a disappointment. Celest was disappointed with the size of the lone pickle :p I was not that fond of pickle, so she had all of it. The burger was not very juicy and was not much better than ordering from Burger King or something.

Verdict: Not going back there in a hurry.

Hoshigaoka - Shaw House

Steak Ju

The Steak Ju at Hoshigaoka is surprisingly good! I usually try not to order steak as it usually is very tough or overcooked despite me asking for medium well.

I wasn't that hungry that night at Hoshigaoka (Shaw House branch) and didn't particularly feel like having the Chawanmushi set (my fave). It was a toss up between Ten Zaru or some udon or the steak.

I decided to give the steak ju a try as I saw several diners having it. Rule of thumb - When in doubt, look around you and see what others are having ;p

I didn't regret ordering it. The beef was very tender, done just right. Not too tough and yet not rare at all. No pinkish tone to it. I am not sure how the Japanese does it, maybe it is in the seasoning? The onions were caramelized to the right sweetness.

I found another dish to order in Hoshigaoka now :)

Ayam Penyet Ria

I always see the signboard hanging at Lucky Plaza but have yet to try it until today. Went with Davis to try the signature dish - ayam penyet ria - as she had a craving for it.

We shared the dish as it was 3ish pm then and I just had lunch around 1pm.

The chicken was so tender and could practically melt in your mouth. It was piping hot, fresh out of the wok. The tumeric powder just brought me back to childhood, to primary school canteen where the Malay stall auntie sold the fried chicken wing. Delicious!

The chili is really spicy though. The meal came with tempeh, tofu and kang kong. Very nice.

Would love to try the bakso too.

Location
Ayam Penyet Ria
304 Orchard Road
#04-25/26 Lucky Plaza

Christmas Gifts

Christmas came early this year again. The feasting started yesterday at a friend's place and continued today at home. The girls came over for lunch and I made my specialty - tuna noodle casserole. It was more sweets than real food today as we had cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, strawberries and sugar rolls. For savory, there were only KFC chicken and the casserole. Very healthy ;p

PublishStila Kitten Set (includes Kitten IT gloss, kitten eyeshadow, illuminizer), Festival Coffret (includes mascara, smudge pot, lippie and convertible color), some other Stila items - illuminating powder, moisturizer sample, Fashionable IT gloss, foundation sample - necklace (love the gold stuff in the teal crystal pendant), YSL mascara, purple ring (so my color!), M&S keyfob, choccies, Belle towel (my fave Disney Princess character - love her gold dress) and Coach mini skinny (my own present for myself - love tghe red trimming).
Forgot to take picture of a towel set and notebook from Esprit and a small bottle of CK Escape fragrance.

Got some pressies from the girls and others :) I love all the gifts! Thank you!

Coach Key Fob BCA

This is so cute! So similar to the key fob from Coach. The credit card is most like me, I guess. Hehe. It said "Spend me Spend me" :P

I love it! Going off for a steamboat Christmas dinner soon. This is to replace the usual Christmas lunch we have on the actual day as most of us will be celebrating it in Bangkok this year. But some couldn't make it then.

I love Christmas :)

Wedding on 26 November 2006

This is the first wedding (not of the year as my brother got married earlier this year) but of the nuptials season. A long time friend whom I barely kept in touch with for the last few years, but we were roomies back in Canada, and were pretty close then. Cute bears :)

Tea Ceremony

Tea Ceremony at the bride's side. There were tons of relatives who flew in from Indonesia and Hong Kong, plus helpers from States and wherever else. I love the teal cheongsum she is wearing. It is so my color! :p It is definitely something different, not the traditional "kwa" which most brides wear during the tea ceremony.

Wedding Fever!

This is my 3rd wedding in under 3 weeks (1 every weekend) and the last. It seemed like everyone is getting married this month. The picture is of the wedding ceremony in church for my younger cousin, actually my youngest cousin on my Dad's side. I love her gown. I was never really one for wedding gowns as they all seemed to look the same. Strapless, satin material and with many layers, making it stiff and big, etc. But hers was a simple creation. Very elegant and very old-world. A sleeveless v-neck shift dress with intricate lace design overlaying the "soft" dress, ending in a train with lace details at the edge. Nice!

It was quite an emotional affair, with the bride tearing when saying her vows, and the groom choking when he sang her a song at the end as a surprise. I like that they each wrote a page in the program on why they are marrying each other and their thoughts of their partner. It is nice to know as unless you are a very close friend of the couple, you won't really know how they met or what they think of each other.

It is quite a big affair with guests flying in from all over the world.

There are 3 parts to her wedding. Tea Ceremony in the morning, followed by the church wedding, and finally the wedding dinner tomorrow. Thank God for the short break.

My new phone - Moto RAZR V3i

Moto Razr with a shoe charm from an "angel"

I finally did it. Took the plunge and tied myself down. 2 years. After being contract free for my entire phone owning life, I am now stuck for at least 2 years. Not that I ever change my service provider or phone for the last 6-7 years. I guess I just dislike the idea of being tied down. I like to be free and easy, to have the freedom.

My phone gave up on me yesterday. I suspected the old problem came back when a few friends and clients could not hear me when I answered their calls. Since there were no repair shops nearby when that happened in the late afternoon, I had to buy a phone.

A real pity the Blackberry Pearl is only sold exclusively to Singtel. I was so ready to get that. Then I contemplated getting a Nokia 6118 (?) or LG Chocolate phone. In the end I got the Motorola Razr V3i as weight and quad-band won out in the end. The Nokia is too heavy. LG has a too sensitive touch screen. Razr was already something I was considering earlier, so I decided to get that. In maroon, I doubt Violet will ever hit our shores.

I felt so dumb when I saw all the stuff in the box. Headset, screen wiper, cds, mini memory card, etc. I never had so many things in my phone before. I am just too used to my vintage phone where it is not multi colored, has no camera function or MP3 or web browser, etc. Suddenly I have all these and more. Still trying to get used to using the Moto. Been such a long time Nokia user.

Thai Express - Soft shell crab tang hoon

I have been craving for the soft shell crab tang hoon (bean thread) in "claypot" from Thai Express ever since I had a sample from Davis' order last 2 weeks ago.

Thai Express revamped and expanded their menu for the outlet at Raffles City. I didn't know that until I met Davis for lunch the other day. There were so many items now e.g. crispy prawn pancake, stuffed tofu, crayfish tom yam, crayfish tang hoon, soft shell crab tang hoon, minced chicken basil rice, chicken ball with tang hoon, etc.

Soft shell crab tang hoon

On Thursday, we had dinner at the Thai Express at Paragon. The outlet only started serving the items on the new menu the day before. So I finally had my chance to sink my teeth into the soft shell crab tang hoon. It was so yummilicious. The bean thread soaked up the flavor of the sauce, the soft shell crabs were crispy and perfectly formed, the mushrooms were juicy and it had lots of black peppercorns and garlic and ginger. This is my favorite dish in Thai Express now.

Plaza Market Cafe - Raffles the Plaza

I never really had a good impression of the food at Plaza Market Cafe at Raffles the Plaza as the selection didn't excite me at all the two times I was there. The very first time was probably a few years back when I had high tea there. I remembered it as very local in the desserts and the food was nothing to write home about. The 2nd time was for breakfast back in 2003. Again, I didn't think the food was that fantastic. To date, Ritz Carlton has the best breakfast buffet in Singapore with a wide selection of food (western, local, Japanese) plus freshly squeezed fruit juices.

So when a colleague asked me to have dinner with her as she has to use her dining voucher before it expired, I agreed. Anyway, we needed to destress for a while. We decided on Plaza Market Cafe as there were not much choices. Inagiku was too expensive, Prego was not that great either. So Plaza Market Cafe it was. At least it was a buffet so we could certainly find something to suit us both.


I was pleasantly surprised to note that there was a decent dessert spread (though most were gone by the time we made it to dessert) - chocolate mousse cake, cheesecake, pulot hitam, ice cream, some cakes etc. Don't remember much now. But the food at Plaza Market Cafe was mostly peranakan with some Japanese fare too.

For starters, I had the oysters, mussels, and some shrimp stuff. That were good. Then I moved on to the sashimi and one piece of sushi. That was followed by pie tie (absolutely deliciously) and laksa. Nice. By then I was already pretty full but still being me, I just like to try new stuff. So I had some prawns, beef rendang, eggplants and fried rice. We also had a bottle of white wine to accompany the food, courtesy of the voucher :p

All in all, it was a satisfying meal. Way too full by then.

Location
Level 2, Raffles The Plaza
Dress code: Casual

Open:
Breakfast
Daily - 6:00 am to 11:00 am
Lunch
Daily - 12:00 noon to 2:30 pm
High Tea
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays - 12:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Dinner
Monday to Friday - 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays - 6:30 pm to 10:30 pm

For restaurant reservations, please dial: 6431 6156.

Dinner and Drinks (24 Nov 2006)

Table Setting

Menu for dinner

Sushi, Chicken Karaage and cold tofu

Cold Soba

Dessert - Lamington with Baileys (YUM!)

A gf invited a few of us over for dinner last Friday and it was a sight to behold. Japanese food ruled the night, ending with an Aussie dessert (Lamington! - courtesy of moi).

I love the way she did the presentation of the food. A cosy dinner for 5 of us, a night full of fun and laughter and gossip, with wine and liquor flowing freely.

Lipgloss Collection - 26 Nov 2006

I am amazed at myself. From just a couple of lipglosses as I am allergic to most lip products, I managed to amass so many glosses now, in just under 2 years (2005-2006). There would be more but I did finish 2-3 glosses and dumped them.

So yes, I shall try to finish the rest and not buy anymore for a while now. About 2/3 of the glosses are brand new and untouched. I find myself reaching more for Bobbi Brown glitter tube tints recently. They are excellent!

I have to do a fragrance and eyeshadows and blushers collections soon. Be still, my heart ;p

Manna Korean Restaurant in Takashimaya Food Hall

I have always walked past the Korean stall near the entrance of Takashimaya Food Hall but didn't try it until a few months back.

I was craving for some Korean food and decided to try the dolsot beef bibimbap. I like that it was served in the dolsot (hotpot-like) as it kept the food warm and gave a bit of crispiness to the rice sticking to the dolsot.


For $8.80, you get the beef bibimbap, bowl or soup, 3 appetizers (ikan bilis, seaweed and kimchi). Pretty good deal as the appetizers are fresh and of a generous serving unlike in food court where they are quite pathetic. Plus the ikan bilis are actually crunchy and not chewy rubbery.

My new lust: Blackberry Pearl

Pic courtesy of Sam

The blackberry never really impressed me much. I just didn't care for the bulky size of the usual blackberry. Then I found out about the Blackberry Pearl from another person. Saw the gadget from the website and it is a beauty! The most attractive part is its weight - less than 90g! I'm sold! And it looks like a normal phone, plus it can do many things too. This will definitely be handy since my PDA (Palm Vx - yes, it is that old!) is kinda dying now. The stylus is just not inputing the correct information at all.

Now, I do need to change my almost extinct phone. I am just waiting for the Violet Moto Razr to be launched here but no news of it yet despite us being in the 4th quarter by now. So now I am lusting over the Blackberry Pearl. Hope it gets here before the GST hike :p

Too lazy to extol the greatness or beauty of the Blackberry Pearl, but you can read more about it here.

More info here too: http://www.blackberrypearl.com/

Afternoon Tea @ Bar & Billiard Room

I finally got to try the afternoon tea at the Bar & Billiard Room in Raffles Hotel last Sunday. There were 2 sets available - English and Asian. The food was served in the 3-tiered silver stands. I like the selection of tea as it was a huge list available, including white tea, green tea, chinese tea and the various English tea.

Food wise, it is a bit skimpy as it is non-refillable. Maybe I am so used to having more food than I can handle. Hehe. However, the portions are quite alright, more than enough for one actually as it can be filling.


The set on the foreground is the Asian set - it has more Asian kuehs e.g. lapis, ondeh ondeh, pineapple tart and others. The savory items are more of the dim sum varieties e.g. samosa, char siew siu, prawn roll, etc

The other set is the English set with Western pastries and sweets, and sandwiches. I quite like the smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich actually. Other than that, the others are not so memorable.

This is pricey at S$42+++, especially since it is non-refillable. I would rather go to Regent Hotel for the Afternoon tea. My favorite place :)

Miss Clarity Cafe

I finally found Miss Clarity Cafe after hearing so much about it, but I always forget the address. Only know that it is somewhere near Bugis area. I was walking along Purvis Street thinking of having the Hock Lam Beef Noodle there when there it is - a bright hot pink sign - Miss Clarity Cafe.

It sure wasn't what I expected. It was so "cartoonish" with its bright neon colors and drawn figures. It reminded me of the trend a couple of years back where it is very popular to have female "cartoonish" figures and you see that in a lot of ads or print materials.

It has a wide range of food at reasonable prices and I ordered the set lunch. Crispy chicken, salad and dessert of the day (mango pudding).

The chicken was quite alright, and came with boiled cabbage and roasted potatoes with black pepper sauce. The cabbage didn't leave much to desire. The salad was quite a mish-mash of everything. Thousand island dressing (I dislike Thousand Island dressing) over shredded veggies and it even had chickpeas, cubes of fruits and nuts. Very different. The mango pudding was a disappointment. Tiny and super sweet. I took one bite and left it there and ordered a bread and butter pudding instead. That was served with vanilla ice cream. The pudding was warmed up and was pretty ok, nothing fantastic too.

Miss Clarity Cafe serves average food at affordable prices (below $10 for all items), but I won't be back there in a hurry.

Christmas @ Starbucks

I love Christmas, and I love the special drinks that Starbucks come up with every time there is a festive season. But Christmas certainly came early in Singapore. Barely after we celebrated Deepavali and Hari Raya Puasa, I saw Christmas trees and other Christmas decorations along City Hall and Orchard Road just last week. Turned out the Christmas Light-up officially started on 12 November 2006. The shops are sure getting people in a spending mood early. With the impending increase of GST (to 7%) next year, no doubt people will be spending like there is no tomorrow, especially on big ticket items.

So yes, Christmas at Starbucks. I just can't resist the peppermint mocha. The usual chocolatey coffee mixed with the minty aftertaste - just delicious. I have been resisting the cakes that came with this season, but I finally caved in and bought a slice of the raspberry swirl cheesecake and had it with the toffee nut latte.

I like the box and packaging for the festive treats :)


The cheesecake is really heavy and the raspberry adds a nice contrast. However I prefer my cheesecake to be lighter so I much prefer Secret Recipe's version or even the one from Coffee Bean. The toffee nut latte is sweet and has a slight nutty taste to it. Give me peppermint mocha anytime though :p

Fragrance again - Nina

I just love the shape of this bottle - a red apple with silver cap and leaves. I bought the smallest bottle, which is a cute size. A tiny apple. It is a sweet toffee apple scent when you first sprayed it, then it settled onto a powdery vanilla-y finish. It reminded me of another scent, probably Pure Wish from Chopard.

Taken from OsMoz:
Story
Nina is a ‘young woman living under a lucky star’. This graceful, romantic ‘fairy for our times’ is looking for an unusual fragrance, ‘a magical elixir’ with sweet, fruity and mouthwatering waves of scent. For her, Nina Ricci invented Nina, a fairy-tale fragrance in a love-apple shaped bottle.

Perfume description
A fresh, fruity, mouthwatering floral. An opening that sparkles with Calabrian lemon and Caipirinha lime. The heart reveals the charm of “love apple” (candy apple, in French), paired with floral notes of peony and moonflower. Then a sweet vanilla praline note announces the trail: apple-tree wood and musks. Perfume designers: Olivier Cresp and Jacques Cavallier, Firmenich.

Top note : Calabrian Lemon, Caipirinha Lime
Middle note : Love Apple, Peony, Fleur de Lune, Praline
Base note : Apple Tree, White Cedar, Musks

Bottle
An apple-shaped bottle, as raspberry-pink and bright red as a candy apple. The fruit is decorated with shiny metal leaves and stem. The bottle reinterprets the shapes of an earlier Nina Ricci perfume: ‘Fille d’Eve’ (Daughter of Eve).

Wine, Cheese, Crackers = Bliss

This is the ultimate way to chill. When you have a long day and are just too tired to bother about cooking. Grab a ready-chilled bottle of wine (white for me), some crackers and a chunk of cheese. Voila! A square meal. Cheese for protein and calcium, crackers for carbohydrates and wine as dessert? vitamins? ;p

My way of relaxing at home when I am really stressed and chocolate doesn't cut it. Put on some jazzy music, burn candles and essential oil, lay out the spread and surf the web or chat online to friends.

Stuffed Chicken

I have been meaning to blog about this but just didn't have the chance/time.

I have heard about this - stuffed chicken. From Stufit.

The chicken is deboned, stuffed with fragrant rice, and then cooked/roasted to perfection. A nice brown crispy skin. I saw it at the moon cake fair at Takashimaya the day I was to leave for Phuket. I popped by the fair after seeing the doctor and decided to get one chicken for the family to try. It is such a novelty.

I bought the regular chicken with rice, instead of the other version where it is stuffed with raisins, nuts and rice. I never liked rice cooked with fruits and nuts though I realized it is quite common in western countries. I prefer my rice to be savory, not sweet.


It is quite a marvel how they managed to debone and stuff the chicken. Taste wise, the usual chicken rice wins hands down. Still, it is an interesting meal.

You can find more information here: Stufit

Wedding Cake?

I don't really eat much cakes, even though I like them well enough. And when I do order cakes for dessert, I always go for chocolate cake as I prefer the "tried and tested".

We received a cake from my cousin's family as she is getting married (wedding in December). I am not sure what this is called, but it is probably not wedding cake. Should it be an "engagement" cake? I find it confusing - the Chinese custom of holding a wedding.

Apparently, the family who is going to have a wedding will give away cakes to relatives (and friends too?) to announce the impending nuptials. Usually there will be the formal meeting of the parents to discuss the "dowry" or something too.


Anyway, the cake we received is actually a cookies and cream cake from Angie The Choice. I rarely have cakes from there, as it seemed to specialize in cream cake and that is not really a favorite of mine. I was pleasantly surprised by the lightness of the cake, and the cream is very fresh, not heavy buttery at all. That usually made me a bit sick.

Chocolate sponge cake with layers of fresh cream and bits of cookies inside the cream. It was good.

Elements Spa - Update

I went to Elements Spa today and had the most "torturous" massage ever. In fact, I wouldn't even call it a massage as the therapist applied acu-pressure for most of the 60mins session. And I specifically requested for a therapist who can do Balinese/Indonesian massage.

My fave therapist has left :( So now I am stuck with a package (luckily left just a couple of sessions) and no other "recommended" therapists. It is so hard to find good therapists now. I know majority of people who went for massage sessions, they are mostly office workers and so tend to have tension at the shoulder/back area and would prefer a "hard" massage. And it seemed like therapists who "specialized" in the hard massage are mostly from mainland China, and they used their skills (usually Tui Na or acu-pressure, etc) to do that.

They are not very good with the relaxing Swedish massage at all. They are so used to doing the hard massage, they seemed to forget that sometimes customers do want to give their bodies a break and just have a relaxing, soothing massage. Or they applied their knowledge of trying to "unblock" the "blockages" in the body or bloodstream or whatever. (I never did understand what they are saying to me.) and to do that, they tried their darnest to use all the strength they have (or so it seemed) to press hard.

So yeah today, the therapist (I have tried her a couple of times and she was ok then cos I always specified I do not want to have Tui Na, just regular massage with a bit of firm pressure) saw from my card that it has been over 6 weeks since I last went there for a massage. She kept "tsking" and said I should go more often and then I wouldn't be so stiff now.

The fact is I had 3-4 massages just in October but at other spas, which I didn't tell her. And my stiffness is due to the position of my laptop at home.

So throughout the session, she went on about me having to go to see her regularly so I wouldn't be stiff, and she applying acupressure on me more than the usual Indonesian style massage which I liked. Maybe I should have interrupted her midway and asked her what exactly she is doing, but sometimes it is hard to do that cos you really have no idea what they are doing.

Bottomline - yakking away is bad, acupressure is equally bad when unrequested.

Well, at least I know I will definitely not be signing up another package once this ends.

I don't know why, but I really do not like to have a massage done by a mainland Chinese. Too many bad experiences - mostly cos they like to do Tui Na which I thoroughly disliked. The first time I had that, my arm swelled up. Apparently the technique was all wrong, and the "qi" or "blood" or whatever was stuck and caused the swelling.

I very much prefer Malay therapists or Singaporeans or Malaysians and Thai (for Thai massages only). They are much better. The most soothing, relaxing massage I ever had was done by an Aussie in Byron Bay (my fave place in Oz). It was totally pain-free.

Pure Eddiction

Pure Eddiction had a booth at the Basement of Takashimaya, near Cold Storage a few weeks back and I just had to try this. It looks like a brownie on a popsicle stick. It is called Elvis. Lol.

A brownie-like sponge cake lightly coated with fudge and nuts. I love nuts! It is not too bad, but not mind-blowing either. The website looks good though. Worth checking it out.

http://www.pure-eddiction.com

PASSAGE New York Part 2 - Facial

I went back to Passage yesterday for the 2nd half of the treatments which I already paid for. It is the Rose Silk Peel Facial. The therapist was pretty good, with gentle hands. I am not a big fan of facial as I don't really like strangers touching my face. Plus I dislike the steaming and extraction part and the masking part bores me, unless I'm really tired and want to sleep.

The Rose Silk Peel Facial sounds yummy, with a rosy scent. It is supposed to be a diamond peel facial with rose water. However I am not sure why, I didn't get the diamond peel treatment at all.
I don't think I have ever done a diamond peel facial before and it is supposed to be done with the help of a machine.

I didn't get that. Instead she started off with a light mini massage of the face and shoulders area. Then it was the cleansing, analysing of skin, steaming and extraction. I hate hate hate extractions but she was quite gentle and thankfully I didn't have much to extract.

She then showed me an ampoule for hydrating purposes and massaged that onto the skin. And she added something for eye treatment followed by a mask. Then after 20mins or so, the skin was toned and moisturized with sunblock.

Again, I was given a room which is probably next to the dance studio. I could hear the instructor shouting "1,2,3,4..." and then loud dance music. Totally unrelaxing.

This time round, they didn't try to sell me anything. In fact no one followed me at all or attended to me after the treatment. I didn't even have to sign anything. Weird.

So this is the end of Passage, I doubt I will go there again.

Lunch at Modesto's

Met Tanny for lunch today and decided to go to Modesto's. It was a quiet afternoon, not many people at all. We sat outside as it wasn't too warm, nor was it too hazy today. It was a pity the executive set lunch menu was not very appetizing at all. So we decided to share a basket of garlic bread, calamari and the black ink seafood pasta.

The garlic bread is good, but I still prefer the one at Esmirada's for garlic bread as it is served as a loaf, and always warm. The calamari is pretty good, not too rubbery. I always ordered the black ink seafood pasta when I go to Modesto's. I love the prawn bisque sauce which is slightly sweet and flavorful. The pasta is al dente and the prawns and scallops were good.

For dessert, we decided to hop over to Hard Rock Cafe. I heard good things about the mudpie so we had that instead of the usual brownie. The last time I had the brownie (2005), I was a bit disappointed because it was presented in a huge sundae glass, instead of on a deep-dish plate. I prefer the old way of presentation and it was so much better too. The mudpie was pretty good, the chocolate ice cream on top was really chocolatey with a slight bitter aftertaste. The bottom layer is coffee ice cream and you can't go wrong with that. However I think Coffee Club mudpie is better than HRC.

Location:
Modesto's
Orchard Parade Hotel

Giotto

This is really nice! Similar to Rocher but without the chocolatey bits. The hazelnut filling is super sweet and yummy. I like the nuts coating, give the crunch.

It is available at Candy Empire for $13.50 (pack of 4)

Bao Today

Wooden window, looking out into the mall

I decided to try Bao Today at Marina Square Shopping Mall as it is fairly new and I was curious to see what they sell. The decor is done in the traditonal drama serials type of inns. Wooden tables and stools, complete with the wooden windows.

The dishes served are mostly dim sum types - shrimp dumplings, rice rolls, century egg and lean meat porridge, siew mai, baos and even the sharkfin dumpling soup.


I tried the shrimp dumplings and porridge. The dumplings were huge. They were average, the skin was thicker than what I like it to be. The filling was pretty generous, with many shrimps in it.

The century egg and lean meat porridge (congee) was quite tasty. I like that. I would like to go back again to try the seasame filled bun next time, or with more people to try more dishes.