Modesto's @ VivoCity

It was pretty late when we went for dinner at VivoCity. We were pretty hungry and didn't really want to wait in line for food. Walking along the row of restaurants facing the water, we decided on Modesto's. Cubes of herbed bread was served with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The basket looked way too big for the bread?
We decided to share a pizza, pasta and dessert as it was quite late too. We ordered the mini four-cheese pizza. It was light and crispy with tomato, scamorza, mozzaerlla, gorgonzola and parmesan cheese. It was good. I love thin crust pizza.

It was back to my usual black ink (not squid, so it doesn't stain your teeth or lips) with scallops, prawns and tomatoes in a prawn bisque sauce. This was my favorite dish though it didn't taste that fantastic that night. Plus I think the portion has shrunk?

Highlight of the meal was the dessert - Coppa Tartufo
It is gianduja (my fave chocolate) ice cream coated with toasted bread crumbs and cocoa and served with strawberries and blueberries, whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. Absolutely fabulous.

Ipanema Gisele Bundchen

I was at Tangs and chanced upon their Atrium Sale at VivoCity. I was just looking around while waiting for a friend when I saw this. Simple yet not too casual. I was amazed by its lightness. It felt like walking on air. I loved the color too.

And it was a steal at less than $30. Plus I still have some rebate dollars in my Tangs card so this was virtually free since I got them using my rebate :) Now I have an alternative to my birkies. Sweet!

HK Kim Gary @ VivoCity

It is always a long line at HK Kim Gary. We decided to just bite the bullet and queue for it. It was not too bad, I think we waited for about 15 minutes before we were brought to a table.
I had the set which gave me a choice of corn soup or the borscht soup. I decided on the borscht as I totally loved the version served at Shashlik. Unfortunately it was more tomato soup at HK Kim Gary. Not that fantastic.
We decided to also order from the cheese menu and selected the oven baked mushroom with cheese sauce to share.
Lots of cheese and different types of mushrooms - oyster, button (from a can which was horrid), enoki. Not too bad.
My baked rice with fish fillet. This was pretty ok. Nothing to make me drool about it or want to go back again very soon.

Peranakan Museum

After so many months (or was it weeks), I finally made it to the Peranakan Museum which took over the Asian Civilization Musuem (not the one at Empress Place) on Armenian Street. In the years I have been back in Singapore, the museums in the area kept changing its names and artifacts on display. I love museums, I love exploring and reading up on the history of places and things and cultures. I only found out recently that it is free admission to all, if not most, museums in Singapore every Friday nights from 6pm. That was a nice discovery.
Being a Peranakan Museum, it housed all things Peranakan (straits Chinese who married the indigenous people i.e. Malays) in the old days. The food cover is amazing, with its intricate designs and drawings on it.

Old phone. The real traditional one will have the circle rotary dial. I remembered we had those phones till the early 80s. It was actually pretty fun though it took a longer time to actually dial the other party's number.

Another old old old phone. This, I have only seen in movies and other museums. There are pre-recorded conversations played when you pick up the handset to listen. It was pretty funny to hear them speak in the peranakan way.
This is a beaded cover. Not exactly a cushion cover but something that was being displayed. I wondered how long it took to finish this.
I thought this was clever. The wooden block has several types of moulds for making kuehs.

I have not seen these buckets for so long! We used to have these at home too for washing clothes and other stuff. I think my grandma used it to wash the pigs' intestines when she cooked pig organ soup in the 80s.
And the larder overhead. Food were kept up there to prevent any insects from getting to them

Beaded shoes/slippers which they are famous for. These are usually handmade.

And the brooch. They love gold jewelry and some are actually silver plated.

Yummi Chiffon @ Tanjong Pagar MRT

I was at Tanjong Pagar MRT and was amazed by the changes over there. That showed how long I have not been there, or rather walked around the area. It seemed to be another Raffles Xchange with lots of F&B stalls and clothes/shoes outlets.

I saw Yummi Chiffon with its array of delectable-looking chiffon cakes and was tempted to try one. And I did. I bought the banana chocolate chiffon for breakfast with my soya bean milk drink. The chiffon was light as air and none too oily or heavy at all. It was awesome!

After running whatever errands I did over there, I decided to buy half a dozen back to the office for my colleagues to try. 2 x banana chocolate (my fave of the 3 with its light banana sweetness and slight chocolatey taste as a foil), 2 x cheese (recommended by gf but errr...I don't really like it - it was ok with a very slight cheesiness to it) and 2 x pandan (traditional flavor which was fragrant - we could smell it once the box was opened).

Best of all, the chiffon cakes were low in fat and sugar and had no preservatives. So you can only keep it for 1 night in the fridge. But best is to eat it on the day itself.

I hope they will open another outlet near my workplace soon. This is simply yummilicious and there are so many other flavors to try.

Location:
Yummi Chiffon
Raffles Place MRT B1 Atrium
Tangjong Pagar MRT B1-04
Winston Tan - 9833 9330
X-Venture Impex Pte Ltd (no retail)
290R Joo Chiat Road S427542
xvimpex@singnet.com.sg

Bistro Petit Salut @ Holland Village

Pink and blue girls. This seemed to be our colors :p Or green. But yes, ladies who lunched again. This time 4 of us, and at Bistro Petit Salut over at Chip Bee Gardens. This was more casual and relaxed. A homely place filled with warmth.

The crusty bread and butter. We were starving so we attacked the bread once we ordered. It seemed to be a baguette.
All of us ordered the same starter - seared baby bay scallops with cocktail potatoes and shallot vinaigrette. The scallops were sweet and went very well with the potatoes and shallots.
My and T main - Seared onglet beef “Café de Paris” with French fries - It was not as tender as the beef cheeks over at Dempsey outlet but it was not too bad. The portion seemed smaller too.
D's main - Seafood spaghetti, tomato fondue, parsley and olive oil - it was not too bad. Quite nice.
A main - Oven-roasted chicken leg confit with wild mushroom cream sauce and gratin potato - this was actually really nice. The meat was so juicy and tender.

A & D dessert - Homemade baked cheesecake with a scoop of sorbet - the sorbet was tangy and refreshing on the palate. The cheesecake was nice too.
T dessert - Nougat glacé with pistachio and mixed fruits - not exactly my favorite but something different.Guess I am not a huge fan of nougat.
My dessert - Crème Brulée - I love this. I simply like to crack the burnt sugar on top and dig through to the soft creamy custard.
I was so excited to find these black specks. Real vanilla beans were used to make the Crème Brulée.
Finally, a picture of my coffee. Guess it is from illy. Robust and not too bitter after I added milk and sugar.

I still prefer Au Petit Salut over at Dempsey just for the ambience and food selection even though Bistro is slightly cheaper.

Fried Bee Hoon @ Food Republic

Of all the noodles, I love beehoon. I like the thin slippery texture, especially for fine beehoon. I am not a fan of the thicker version (those from China) not the laksa type.

So sometimes when I want beehoon with wuxiang, I would go to Food Republic at Wisma Atria to satisfy my craving. I don't really know where else has wuxiang. Yes, I am still a newbie to finding wuxiang places. I like the tofu and the prawn crackers and fish cake and century egg with my beehoon. Nice.

Absolut Mango Attraction

I was invited to Absolut Attraction at eM by the River last week. 2 hours of free drinks :p Free flow of absolut Mango martini and mojitos. Yum. I like how they used the butterflies strap to ID female guests. Male guests were given another gold straps.
We decided to have Absolut Mango Mojito, so we sat indoors. There were not many available tables, so the bar counter it was for us. It was a nice place. I like eM by the River at Gallery Hotel. Pretty cozy and not too noisy. The Absolut Mango Martini was served outdoors by the river. That looked like a very relaxing place to be at. Just chilling and watching the world goes by.
S and I. We were in black! Well S was totally in black while I was only partially in black. We only had 1 drink before we left to get dinner. Alcohol was wasted on us :p
This was taken by the nightlife people. They took better picture, I think. Looking through the other pictures online, I think we left way too early or people only came much later.

Menya Shinchan Ramen

I am so into ramen recently that I get craving for it now. My favorite so far is Hokkaido ramen. I think the butter and corn made all the difference. We wanted to try Sapporo Ramen Miharu at Gallery Hotel after an event but alas, it is closed on a Wednesday.

So we just wandered around the Robertson Quay area and finally stumbled upon this tiny ramen place which is tucked away in an alley. Menya Shinchan Japanese Noodle Restaurant - opened by a Japanese expat who used to run a large Japanese MNC in Singapore.

It is a no-frills type of place with just a couple of tables indoor and a countertop, plus a few tables outdoors. It is authentic Japanese ramen place frequented by lots of Japanese. They are still tweaking the ramen to get the perfect one, so it is recommended to remember what type of ramen you like so that you can inform the chef of it in future.

We tried the popular salty pork bone ramen (light) and miso light. The salty pork bone soup is too porky taste and it doesn't have corn.
I ordered the miso ramen and it came with corn, 3 slices of pork belly, half an egg and the usual other stuff. This was much better and I quite like it. The soup was salty but not too salty. If you are hungry, you can order the bigger portion where it looked like a mountain of noodles a la ice kacang style :p We saw 2 guys ordered the big portion and they slurped it all up pretty fast.

Location:
Menya Shinchan Japanese Noodle Restaurant
30 Robertson Quay #01-05
Riversude View
Tel: 6732 0114

UPS - Horrible Service

This is one of my few rant post, but I am just so utterly disappointed and fed up with UPS (no joke about Fedex and UPS).

It has been 3, yes THREE, trois, tres weeks and I have yet to hear from anyone from UPS. So what happened?

VS made a mistake on the shipping form and so the amount was over S$400, and thus was charged for GST. UPS paid on my behalf and my mom paid UPS when they delivered the parcel. My mom was not aware of the mistake as she didn't know anything about the order at all.

I was shocked that we got charged for GST as the actual amount charged by VS was lower than stated on the shipping form attached outside on the box. The invoice inside the box was the accurate one and way below the amount charged. Plus the credit card bill also showed the total after exchange rate conversion was below the S$400.

I called up UPS to inquire about it and I was referred to call another number. I did that and spoke with a Jose. He was the most helpful of all the UPS employees. He told me to email him the information and he will re-direct to the relevant personnel. I did that and he forwarded the email to the relevant department (I guess) which involved 2 persons (Anba and Fikri). So far, from what I have seen of their email. It had been either they were not in office or their mailbox was full or something.

Basically I keep seeing email from Fikri instructing Anba to contact me but to no avail. I called UPS again and spoke to someone else. Again, no one else called me or emailed me.

So till now, I have no idea if they are going to process the GST refund from the government. I have checked out the GST website and only those who paid the GST can seek refund, so I can't even contact GST office itself to process the refund.

This is so ridiculous! I tried searching for the PR/Marcom person of UPS Singapore and was unable to find any information. The one in USA will only respond to journalists' email. They probably get too many complaints from the customers. I wonder where people can actually leave feedback since their customer service department is not doing anything at all. I am loathed to write in to the press as seriously I don't have the time and energy to do it. But if push comes to shove, I would not hesitate to do it at all.

I could still try to find the contact information of the current APAC President of UPS, who is a Canadian - Derek Woodward - and just took over from Ken Torok from April this year. It just seemed absurd that such a small matter need to be escalated to so many people or levels.

I just want a reply from UPS customer service on my case and what they are going to do about it. But lesson learnt. Next time, do not pay for anything first without checking and I will definitely tell my mom that. This is such a pain.

F1 Racecar

I saw this at Raffles City a couple of weeks ago. It was sponsored by Credit Suisse. I walked past it several times but never really walked around just to see it. So I always glimsped it on my way to the escalators. I guess everyone is getting ready for the F1 Night Race happening in a couple of weeks. The fences are being erected now along the race course to prevent non-ticket holders from sneaking a peek. I wonder if I can see it from my office building :p

Lulu Guinness Glasses

My vision has been blurry for a while, especially when looking far away and it was bad for driving as I need to strain my eyes and adjust my glasses whenever I drive at night. So I finally managed to find a pair of glasses which I like and met my criteria - spring handles.

I love the case! I didn't know it comes in a lavender and white striped case and purple dust cloth. I got the nose pads replaced with the silicone nose pads which are softer, but that means the LG motif is gone. Plus it is not titanium so it feels heavier than my previous glasses.
Me wearing the glasses. I love the sides with the encrusted crystals :p Plus it is burgundy frame which is quite my color too. Do I look like a secretary with this?

Inagiku - Set Lunch

I met SL for lunch last week and finally, we managed to go to Inagiku - my favorite Japanese restaurant in Singapore. I just learnt that it is the oldest Japanese restaurant in Singapore and was the very first one set up in Singapore way back in the 80s. Wow. And the reason why the food is pricey is because everything used is from Japan, just to keep the authentic taste. Amazing! It seemed like Inagiku underwent some renovation as it looked bigger and different. Maybe it is because Fairmont is managing it now, and the last time I went was in 2006.

We ordered the Inagiku special set lunch. Can't remember the name of it now. It came with a starter of tuna and some mango bits? It was fruity sauce or something but it was good.
The set lunch. Looked so nice. Lunch set is way much cheaper than dinner set which is at least $100 and over.

Australian beef tenderloin grilled medium. It was just right, not too tough and not that gently soft too. Came with the fried garlic which reminded me of Maratuma ramen.
Garlic fried rice which was deliciously fragrant and softly infused with the garlicky flavor.
A tiny piece of grilled cod fish and lots of grilled prawns with cheesey sauce. It didn't feel too rich despite the cheese. Very nice.
The usual miso soup. Not too salty.

Dessert. It was supposed to be some green apple sorbet but in the end we were served vanilla ice cream. I just love Inagiku food. Yum yum.