Birthdays and picnics.

Birthdays and picnics.






I scheduled my day off to spend it with one of my favourite birthday girls on Friday. Our fancy schmancy plan to do the whole tai tai high tea and nice dinner routine was thrown to the wind when I got last-minute invites to Much Ado About Nothing. There's nothing we quite enjoy more than a good picnic in the park! So after spending a lazy afternoon holed up in a Seah Street shophouse sipping tea, we moseyed down to Fort Canning Park for some eating and lounging. The girl's got dreams to keep a picnic basket with shiny silver and crystal wine glasses in my car when I get one (along with a license), but for now, we're pretty content bringing our picnic food in plastic bags and guzzling wine from the bottle. Once again, I fell captive to my weakness for Doritos and French Onion dip.

The greatest compliment of all.

The greatest compliment of all.


picture from inmagine

Daph and I bumped into a university acquaintance on Saturday who said: "You both look the same!" Now that made my day. Like any other female, "wow, you lost weight" ranks pretty high on my list of coveted compliments, but it is an unrealistic desire when you have a job that revolves around food like I do, and if you are even half as passionate about it as I am.

"You look the same" on the other hand assures me that as much as I have been eating, living and breathing good food, my self-control or at least my metabolism is still intact.

And that's worth celebrating. With truffle fries maybe? Heh. Joke, joke. Off to snuggle up in bed with Elizabeth Gilbert and her musings on pleasure, devotion and balance.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Thanks, but no thanks.


picture from inmagine

I'm a little tickled by the recent influx of offers to set me up. Influx may be an exaggeration, but getting three separate offers from well-meaning friends in the same week is pretty perplexing. And if you're even wondering, no, I didn't take any up on their offer! It's too weird and I've always preferred my relationships to be, to quote a colleague, "organic". Call me a traditionalist, but I am a firm believer of serendipity; not human-aided circumstances.

That, and also because I feel like I'm kinda dancing an ambiguous tango of sorts. Extremely murky waters, but I felt an odd pinch of guilt when I had my hands in someone else's last night, even if it was for nothing other than warmth and affection.

My ex-girlfriends are gonna be so pissed.

Daydreams.

Daydreams.


picture from inmagine

It's been awhile since I've yearned to take a catnap on a hammock or to snuggle up in bed watching Love Actually. Granted, it has been awhile since I've been this busy with work, FYP commitments and that darn PI report but the crunch should be over soon. See you on the other side. ;)

Two pictorial Saturdays.

Two pictorial Saturdays.


CH and I went riverside walking last Saturday with a total of 16 bucks and no credit card in our pockets. We could eat like paupers at a very crowded Epicurious, but we decided we would very much rather eat like royalty in a hawker centre. Our quest for traditional kaya roti ended rather uneventfully at Chinatown food centre. Vaguely unsatisfied, I returned to Epicurious with Ceci today for a lazy afternoon tea date since Jinli and I weren't selected for the Angels & Demons game. There goes our free trip to Rome!




We decided we would share an apartment in the Robertson neighborhood. Either in her dream condo right above the cafes, or my dream apartment with the barbecue terrace by the river. Whichever we can afford first!



Ceci zipped off for her Angels & Demons premiere (sigh, rub it in babe!) while I met up with my brother for dinner and A LOT of gossiping. We drove rather aimlessly through Portsdown and Dempsey, but nothing quite struck our fancy so we ended up at Spruce. AGAIN. I wasn't silly enough to be disappointed by the burger another time, so we ended up sharing fish & chips and a toast platter. And the chocolate chip cookies.

I'm due to teach in eight hours, so it's time to finish planning tomorrow's Mothers' Day dinner and snuggle up. Ecks, where did my Saturday go???

Sleeping to dream.

Sleeping to dream.

The chilly dawn breeze against my bare legs stirred me from sleep. I fumbled to check that I hadn't snoozed my alarm, reached down blindly to pull the comforter up to my chin, then slipped easily back to slumber.

The boisterous chatter of a crowded lounge. The muted silence that sets in when every cell in your body is immensely aware and anticipating. The apprehensive whisper of fingertips through the delicate partition against my face steady into a roaming caress. The roaring pounding of my heart in my chest.

Too weird! I've spent the entire day feeling like I've got my head in my clouds. Warped. Seriously, seriously warped. Seriousleigh.

Ready, steady, climb.

Ready, steady, climb.

We're peaking again. Longer work days, tight deadlines, transcribing, photo shoots, frustrations of writer's block and the adrenaline rush. Boy do I like it. ;)

The bigger picture.

The bigger picture.

Last night's supper had all the makings of potential awkwardness. The company was not unimaginable, although once upon a time, I might have imagined sharing milk tea and laughs with him as his sister-in-law. Catching up with and dispensing love advice to the younger brother of your first great love is not the most common of situations, and I admit that I was initially a tad fearful it would stir up the feelings I have worked so hard at boxing away.

My apprehension was unfounded, because it turned out to be like an enjoyable session with an old friend. This great love of mine was sticky because our families intertwined with our courtship, but despite the years gone by since we last broke each other's hearts, I still care very much for the cheeky brothers and the doting mother who always make the effort to stay in touch.

I never called after returning from my travels even though I promised I would when she came to send me off at the airport, and I thought the guilty conscience was the price to pay for making a clean break. There have been a couple of times over the past year when I almost picked up the phone to call the lady who always prepared my favourite char siew dish, but inertia soon set in.

Their family has been through quite a lot in recent months but I never felt it was in my capacity to do anything about it without upsetting the status quo. Last night's supper however has made me realize that while this great love and I have missed the exit way too many times to ever reach our destination, the relationships and friendships I gained along the ride are something to cherish separately.

And that I should have been a bigger and better person a long while ago.

Gourmet adventures.

Gourmet adventures.

I think I've been incredibly blessed to have had the chance to attend several World Gourmet Summit events and I may just once again break my rule of not blogging about work to talk a bit about my culinary adventures. But first up, a surreal evening with Bob Blumer we bought tickets to.


He looks just like he does on The Surreal Gourmet, except without the wacky hair. I was so excited I dropped my shoe while getting up to take a picture with him. Will I ever be less klutzy and a bit more cool?!





The dinner started with us having to churn our own butter. It was definitely an ice-breaker at the table of seven other strangers, who turned out to be passionate foodies and really nice people. We all worked pretty hard to get semi-churned butter/cream that was yummy nonetheless.

The medley of surreal dishes for the night:

The dressing for the Flower Pot Salad comes from a watering can; Chinese Snow Cones; and the Nutty Monk, an almond-walnut infused cognac that was STRONG.




(l-r from top): Psychedelic Caviar; Flower Pot Salad, Beef Cup-Cake (the icing is actually beet-dyed mash potatoes); Camembert Cappucino and my favourite Eggestential Eggs. What looks like ham and eggs is actually white chocolate mousse with a passion fruit sorbet yolk and painted white chocolate. Yum.


A quick pick with David Rocco at last Wednesday's La Dolce Vita dinner. He's bigger in real life than on tv and no, I wasn't tipsy and cuddling up! It is just my subconscious habit to tilt my head towards people! No pictures of the food unfortunately because I was seated at the media table and it wasn't too cool to keep whipping out my camera! Haha.


Yesterday morning, I attended Chef Laurent Pillard's culinary workshop and had a taste of the US$5,000 Fleurburger (served without the mind bogglingly expensive Chateau Pétrus of course) among many other creations, like a Blackjack of cod brandade and some seriously good potato gnocchi. The Fleurburger features a juicy Kobe beef patty, pan-fried foie gras and black truffles sandwiched between homemade brioche. Click here to read more.

I had a tasting lunch scheduled immediately after the culinary workshop, and hearty meat dishes like pork knuckle, veal sausages and veal liver were served up. "It's part of the job!" said my editor when I told her about my two consecutive lunches in four hours. Perhaps it's time I took up the advice of a writer I met last week: "On days when I have tastings, I have just coffee for breakfast and an apple for lunch." I should consider rewriting my rule of having a proper breakfast to start the day, at least on tasting days. Right now, a vegetarian weekend sounds just about right to balance things off.

Now to the shower and out with my babes. It's a beautiful day ain't it? :)