Chilli Crab or Black Pepper Crab....

Ok so I'm skipping straight to the weekend as last week was much the same as the week before, very chilled!

Highs

- Spending Saturday arvo strolling along the East Coast Park, supping on cold beers and ending on Chilli Crab!
- Discovering a Cable Wake Boarding Park, pretty cool
- Going to see The Expendables

Lows

- Dave working until 9pm on Friday night, I was absolutely starving by the time he came home but at least he came home with pizzas and beers!
- Dave working all of Sunday arvo

And for the foodies

Saturday - We ended up at the East Coast Seafood Centre, you can imagine my delight! The only difficulty was whether to go to Jumbo's for Chilli Crab or Long Beach for Black Pepper Crab.....after an agonising decision we settled on Jumbo's and as the sun set over the sea we tucked into a kilo of Chilli Crab, served in a very rich sticky chilli gravy, the crab was half cracked so it wasn't too much hard work to get the succulent meat out but it was very very MESSY! We had seafood fried rice and these little sweet buns to soak up the gravy to. It was awesome & next week Black pepper Crab.

Sunday - We went to the movies with just enough time to squeeze in some yummie gyozas and beef pancakes. We sat down and eagerly awaited our snacks but when they arrived we were given Red Bean Pancakes instead of beef pancakes, doh! I asked Dave what they were like as he tasted one and he said 'well you can't put chilli on them as they're sweet!' :( Dave went back to the hawker stall to re-order!

After the movies we decided just to grab a quick dinner in a Thai place in the mall, we had heard that Thai food wasn't very good here (which is strange seeing as it's just up the road!) But we actually thought this place was pretty good and very cheap, $6.80 for a Red Duck Curry which Dave ordered and I had Seafood Tom Yum Soup. When it arrived I was soo excited by the little red chilli's on the table I loaded them into my soup before I had even tasted it. Note to self: Always taste food before adding more chilli.


Chilli Crab

The Cappuccino Dunking Pit

Highs

- Spending Friday exploring the Asia Civilisations Museum and learning about The Great Singapore Duck Race down the river!
- Kicking the weekend off with burgers and beers in town on Friday night. And paying $5 for James Boags! Wow beer that was actually cheaper than London.
- Spending a lovely arvo catching up with Evan & Isabelle in the Botanical Gardens & enjoying Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the Park (which was free!) Followed by a top notch meal at Halia, a restaurant in the Ginger Garden. Quote Jayme: Whilst strolling out of the Botanical Gardens 'what an awesome, awesome day' :)

Lows

- Beef Rendang that wasn't really like Rendang
- Getting eaten by mozzies for the first time since we got here Note to self: Must wear mozzie spray when going to The Botanical Gardens.
- I wasn't that impressed with Newton Hawker market, had better at the food courts.


And for the foodies

Fri - We went to a place that had been voted one of the top burger places in Singapore - Bergs Gourment Burgers. Bonus being they sold $5 beers (prob why they were voted one of the top!) We picked our burgers and agreed to share 50:50 (a ratio which I was soon to regret and should have renegotiated a 80:20). I picked a 'Kiwi Stud' (Prime Lamb Pattie, Garam Masala Spices, Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion, Aioli & Bergs Sauce) and Dave picked an 'Ayam a Chicken' (Grilled Chicken Breast, Chilli Ginger Marinade, Lettuce, Tomato, Red Onion, Cucumber Raita, Mango Chutney & Aioli), with a side order of Sweet Potato Chips and Wasabi Mayo to boot. My choice of burger was infinitely better than Dave's so I was quite upset at having to swap halfway through esp as I ended my meal with his dry chicken and not my juicy lamb. But then I had to remind myself of my marriage vows, through times of adversity and all ;)

Sat - We had a quiet day, stayed in and cooked Beef Rendang curry but the recipe said to put in 150g of shaved coconut, we actually only put 100g and even that made it far too coconutty and very dry which we weren't that impressed with. I don't remember Rendang ever being that cocunutty when I've had it out.

Sun - We spent the early part of the day exploring parts of Singapore and then had lunch at Newton Hawkers market. I was quite excited to try Hokkien Noodles so I ordered a large one (to share with Dave obviously) and Dave ordered some chicken satay sticks. But the noodles were very slimy and nothing special apart from the prawns and the nice chilli sauce. As a pile of chicken satay sticks were placed on the table I said 'oh they really do come in 10's!' and they were pretty yummie served with the usual cucumber and shallots.
After having a couple of beers and enjoying the concert, Evan & Isabelle decided to head home but as Dave & I hadn't expensed any food for a couple of days we decided to treat ourselves to a meal at the Halia restaurant in the Botanical Gardens (set within the Ginger Garden). We sat outside amongst the jungle which was such a lovely setting (apart from the mozzie bites!). I had the Prawn Satay sticks (I'm starting to realise after writing this blog that I eat a lot of prawns!) served on a bed of glass noodles salad with papaya and grapefruit pieces all dressed with a ginger flower dressing and it was as superb as it sounds and more! Very zesty & refreshing flavours. The prawn meat texture tasted like it had been lightly minced with other added flavours and then grilled. Dave had a Ribeye Steak served with a jacket potato with truffle butter, mushrooms and green fine beans and his was also as superb as it sounds. You always know a good restaurant when even the beans are cooked to perfection, with just enough bite. And Pièce de résistance was the truffle butter, it was..was..I'm struggling to describe how good it was....so I will leave it to your imaginations.
It transpired whilst deciding whether or not to have dessert that Dave mainly wanted to visit this place as he had read about 'The Cappuccino Dunking Pit' made with layers of warm chocolate, cool vanilla cream and iced coffee shavings together with a brownie for dunking (shock horror!). So when the dessert menu arrived and it wasn't on there he was quite distraught, we gingerly asked the waitress about this infamous dunking pit and she explained it was only served during the day. Doh. But looking at our sad faces she advised she would ask the chef if he would make it specially for us and he agreed! Triumph! I will let the photo speak for itself :)


The Great Singapore Duck Race


How cool!


Singapore Symphony Orchestra in the Park


Halia by Night


The Cappuccino Dunking Pit

Week #4 - Mellow

After such a super foodtastic looong weekend, this week was short and rather mellow in comparison. So mellow in fact I spent one day just reading through a stack of newspapers that had accumulated in our apartment and eating lots of cheese.
Conclusion:
High - I'm better informed
Low - I'm a little bit porky! ;)

Another major low of the week was spending an entire evening inputting Dave's expenses into his work's system...yawn. To quote Dave 'that was the least fun thing I've done in ages'

And for the foodies

Tues - It may surprise you that we couldn't finish our take away last night so we saved the Mutton Mysore curry for tonight and I also threw some veggies in the spare curry sauce they gave us and made a yummie veggie curry to go with.
Wed - Tonight I made Mee Siam noodles with prawns and it was good but I wasn't in awe of it like most dishes we have out here, may be it's because I cooked it! The only bonus was it had prawns in it :)
Thurs - Dave went for after work drinks and then picked up some Japanese Bento boxes on the way home for dinner. I made the mistake of asking him to pop to the shop to grab some beers and he came home with beers and a mountain of crackers and some kettle chips!

Mission Margarita & some Monster Prawns

Highs

- Three day weekend. Happy 45th Birthday Singapura!
- Relaxing at a poolside candlelit table at the 'All you can eat & drink (Margarita) buffet' at the Grand Hyatt on Friday night
- Finding a funky rooftop bar in Club St, where we enjoyed a couple of pre-dinner Asahi's on Sunday
- Going to see Salt at the Gold Class Cinema - separated from the normal riff raff cinema with it's own private bar, first class airplane seats, blankets (air con makes it very cold after a while!), a little side table complete with a wine holder and a button to call your waitress, a full menu of meals and drinks including a Chocolate Brownie (guess what Dave ordered). Supping on red wine and eating freshly made popcorn.

Lows

- Dave having to pop into the office to do some work
- Our Italian meal on Sunday evening was our first bad meal experience. Well to be fair it wasn't 'bad' it just wasn't very fulfilling!
- Going to the gym

And for the Foodies

Friday - The Grand Hyatt - $68 each for 'All you can eat & drink Buffet', half of which we could expense meant only one thing....TAXI! We started with beers, some garlic bread and some more garlic bread, then we went for our second entree, a selection of salads, we esp liked the green papaya salad and the asparagus & avocado, they also had a massive plate of smoked trout with lemon & capers - YUM! (when I helped myself to the trout, Dave looked at my plate and said 'ok shall we just share that?' I turned with a confused look 'err no!') Time to hit the BBQ; steaks, chicken, pork, calamari and monster, I mean monster, prawns! I started with a plate full of monster prawns & some calamari and then finished with a plate full of monster prawns & some calamari. Dave went more for the meat and sausages with a couple of monster prawns on the side. We washed it down with as much red wine as we could guzzle, they were pretty efficient at topping up your glasses which was good! We had a bit of a rest after which Dave went for dessert, no brownies though - poor Dave :( Then it was Margarita O'clock baby! They were too icy to drink quickly but we perservered! The buffet finished at 9:30pm so at 9:25pm when the waiter was coming around with the jug to give everyone their last drink we frantically tried to down the ones we had = BRAIN FREEZE.

Saturday - We ended up down at our local Japanese restaurant & we had a pretty satisfying cheap & cheerful meal. Sashimi to start which had an array of different fish; salmon, tuna, prawn, yellowtail, red snapper and smoked eel. Then Dave asked them to make something that wasn't on the menu - Gyūdon (rice topped with fried beef & onions in a mild sweet sauce with a raw egg on top). It was his favourite dish from his time in Japan and as I tutted and shook my head at his cheekiness, the waitress knew exactly what he meant and was happy to acquiesce to his request. I had fried rice with Kimchi and pork belly with a side order of lightly battered prawns covered in Wasabi Mayo. Both were scrummie esp the prawns! Although when the prawns arrived, on one side of the plate was your usual meat of the prawn which had been fried in a extremely light batter & then covered in Wasabi Mayo. Then on the other side were all prawn heads, eyes, legs and all. They had been covered in breadcrumbs and deep fried as if to be eaten! YUCK! Obviously this was much to the delight of Dave who continued throughout the meal to advise me that I had to eat the prawn heads otherwise they will not fulfil their prawn head destiny. My argument was that a prawn's head destiny is not to be eaten but to be thrown in the bin! As much as I love prawns I could not bring myself to eat a prawns head battered or unbattered. When the waiter was clearing the plates, Dave asked 'are you sure you don't want your prawn heads Jayme' with a smirk, this prompted the waiter to look at me for an answer 'no I'm quite sure, thank-you'.

Sunday - We wandered down Club St to find somewhere for dinner, we checked out some menus inc an Italian restaurant and as soon as I saw Linguine Vongole I had decided for both of us! There was no fault with the starters, we shared some Bresola & a Bruchetta. The mains were also good but tiny! Dave had lamb ravioli, it was fresh but they only gave him six bits and I had a pitiful amount of Linguine. It's always annoying when Italian restaurants skimp on pasta, it's not like it's really expensive (it's just flour & water after all) esp when your paying £13 for it! When the waitress asked if we wanted dessert we replied 'can we have a garlic pizza bread please'.

Monday - Whilst eating our bacon & egg muffins (I would like to add that we boiled the eggs instead of frying them & cut all the fat off the bacon) Dave reminisced about how much he had missed bacon.....until I reminded him that we had in fact had bacon in our sandwiches yesterday morning at a cafe and then he remembered that he had a bacon roll on Friday when he had gone 'out for breakfast' with his boss! Later that arvo (after the gym!) we went to do a food shop but we were a bit peckish and as everyone knows, shopping on an empty stomach is very dangerous for your wallet. So first stop was the food hall and at the very last stall we found the most delicious yummiest delectable freshly made Gyoza's (nearly as good as yours Jax!) and beef pancakes (tasted like Gyoza but with beef) ever! We dipped them in ginger & soy and very hot finger chilli's and soy. Exhausted from our visit to the gym & our shopping we couldn't be bothered to cook so we ordered a lamb, cheese and mushroom Murtabak, an onion Prata and a Mutton Mysore curry to share from Spize.

What an awesome food weekend!!

oop.s. sorry it's sooo long!


Brain Freeze


Seeing Stars

Week #3 - An Evening in a Swish Rooftop Bar

Highs

- Spending most evenings motoring our way through the second season of Fringe and oh my what a finale!!
(- Joshua Jackson, just sneaking that in for the gals!)
- Spending the day exploring a bit of Singapore, starting at the Singapore City Gallery, wandering down Club Street with old shophouses transformed into trendy bars, boutique hotels & restaurants, meandering along the river through Boat Quay, down to the Merlion and along The Esplanade before I was melting so much I had to find some A/C!
- Meeting Dave, Russell (Dave's boss) and Ian (another CS boss) for drinks at a very swish rooftop bar at The Fullerton Bay hotel. An awesome evening!
- Buying a couple of really nice dresses.

Lows

- Taking cover in a shopping mall for a bit of a cool down and ending up spending all the money in my wallet on two dresses, oops!

And for the foodies

Mon - Well we had so much curry sauce left from our take away on Friday that we bought some chicken and made a chicken curry with it, easy as & pretty darn tasty!
Tues - Beers, beers and some red wine, oh and Dave had some tapas but I was too busy shopping! On our way home from the swish rooftop bar we ended up grabbing some pies & Cheezels from the petrol station. Oops!
Wed - Dave bought home some salads and smoothies - something healthy at last!
Thurs - I cooked up a Spicy Italian Sausage Stew and I must say I was rather proud of it! Esp as everytime I cook Dave comes through the front door saying 'oh that yummie smell is coming from our apartment' ;)


Children Playing by the River


Boat Quay


The Marina Bay Sands Hotel (which we need to pay a visit to)


Merlion


The Esplanade


Swish Rooftop Bar (we didn't take this btw!)


Jayme's Spicy Italian Sausage Stew

Satay Sticks only come in 10's

Highs

- Finding Percy Pigs in M&S, whoop whoop!
- Seeing a Olive Backed Sunbird eating nectar out of the flowers on my way to the shops
- Buying a PedEgg, basically a grater for your feet but they're pretty good & a cheap alternative to pedicures!
- Lazing by the pool together on Saturday morning
- Getting rather tipsy watching the rugby and meeting Andrew who shared his (company expense carded) beers with us, what a nice chap! :)
- Spending a lazy Sunday arvo at Holland Village eating & drinking beer (Quote; Singapore's bohemian enclave, Holland Village is a microcosm of life here)
- Dave's earphones still working - PHEW!

Lows

- Finding Dave's very expensive earphones in the pile of washing I had just taken out of the washing machine.
- Being very hung over on Sunday, finding two bruises on my shins but having no recollection of walking into anything!
- Shuttle Runs

And for the foodies

Friday Night aka Take Away Night - At about 7pm there was a scuffle at the front door and when I opened it to investigate there was Dave with so many bags of food he couldn't even knock on the door properly never mind get his keycard out to open it! He had nipped into Spize restaurant on his way home. Note to future self; Do not allow Dave to go to the take away place alone. We went for mainly Indian, Garlic Butter Prata, Murtabak, Mutton Briyani, Nasi Lemak Ayam Kunyit (Fried rice with chicken & turmeric), oh and 10 mixed satay sticks (apparently according to Dave you can only buy them in 10's!). We decided we had so much food we needed to eat it in courses, so we had the Prata & the Murtabak to start, the prata bread was light and smothered in garlic butter, it was very very nice! And well the Murtabak was one of the best things I've eaten since we've been here, it was like the prata style bread but stuffed with chicken and spices and all things yummie. It was sooooo good I just had to take a photo! Both came with a delish curry sauce that you could dip them in. Then we had the satay sticks, they gave us a ridiculously large amount of deliciously thick savoury satay sauce most of which is still sitting in the fridge! We were of mixed opinion on the main courses, Dave liked the Nasi Lemak whilst I preferred the Mutton Briyani but we were in agreement on one thing and that was how nice it is when you have to pick out the cardamon pods, star anise, curry leaves, cloves etc as it just shows you how freshly made the dishes are. Which is what makes them sooo tasty tasty!

Saturday - Pretty uneventful in the food department as we were too busy drinking! But we did manage to squeeze in a Wagu beef burger at the Boomerang bar after watching the rugby.

Sunday - We got up late & very hungover! After lazing around & generally feeling sorry for ourselves we decided we needed something easy to do so Dave picked a restaurant from our guide book and called a cab. Easy! When we arrived at Holland Village we realised all the restaurants stop serving food between lunch and dinner and being so late our chosen restaurant was closed so we went to our back-up plan. Jayme had spied a Wendy's on out way into the village! We decided that if we were going to have Wendy's at all then today would be a good day as fast food burgers & chips are good hangover food! We were a bit sceptical after our KFC experience so much so that Dave suggested just ordering one burger to test it before we committed! But I couldn't be bothered with the faff factor. Much to our delight it was GOOD and it was as good as the Wendy's in NZ so Dave was a happy man. It was just what we needed even though we realised that we had a burger yesterday as well, oops! After lunch we went for a quick exploration, then it started raining so we were forced into a bar! So 'Hair of the Dog' it was, two pints of Asahi a chocolate brownie later we were ready to return home after our strenuous day. Later that evening (just before the GP) we realised we needed dinner so we took a wander down to our local mall. We were just agreeing that we should eat something healthy after our fast food weekend and get some salad or something from the supermarket when this evil man walked past us with take away pizza's.....and the rest as they say is history.


Olive-backed Sunbird (I didn't take this btw!)


Chicken Murtabak



Chocolate Brownie Addict