Saturday Happenings
A nice, decent Saturday spent yesterday. A good time to unwind just a bit and to forget about the pressing demands of work:
Felt a bit out of sorts when I got up. Endeavoured to overcome it by walking to the Swiss Butchery down the road where I stay to buy a decent steak for lunch. Ended up with a 300g ribeye steak. Was pretty tempted by the Wagyu sirloin, but at about $15 for 100g, I think it would have to be a occasion meal, and not just a throw together lunch. Also bought some back bacon, frozen lobster bisque, cafe de paris butter (read as garlic herb butter) and some roast beef to ta pow to office for lunch Monday. Dropped by 8 at Greenwood - the new restaurant on the block -to check out their menu. It is run by the Halia (restaurant at the Botanics) people, and serve Peranakan cuisine. Their set meals seem very reasonable, and feature tasting portions of various dishes. Set lunches go for about $16+++ and dinner for $28+++. I've got a one-for-one voucher for the set dinner, valid up to 30 Dec, wondering who I will share this with - hehe .....
Got home, fried up the chips and steak - 1+ minute each side for the steak - I think I can safely do 2 next time, get it a bit more charred. Had a mixed salad with coleslaw to go with that, and a banana for fruit/dessert. Thereafter hotfooted to the Amrita Spa at Raffles City for my haircut to get it into presentable shape for the festive season. Bought my first pair of jeans in like 2 decades at Giordano, then discovered that the jeans going at M&S were like $15 cheaper :p. Saw a nice tee and pair of jeans that went really well together, tried it on and I must say I look good in that combo. However, as I already felt guilty spending so much on lunch, haircut and jeans already, I decided to "think about it" and maybe buy it next month, and if its meant to be, it will still be there.
Dinner was with willqaf, wince and xiaoxin78. We went to Pu Tien at Kitchener Road, which was very decent and reasonable. We ordered to homemade tofu, which was excellent. The tofu, although fairly unadorned except for some oyster sauce, had inherent flavour and a nice texture, which was not mushy but yet was soft. We also had the hingwa bee hoon which had mixed reviews because of some of our dislike for yan swee, or Chinese parsley, which was included in that dish. The tao kee (bean curd sheets) with kai lan (?) got the thumbs up, and the boiled prawns with herbal soup in bamboo were well received, although I felt that the prawns were a bit on the small side compared to the last time I had that dish. The damage including rice, tea and sundry extras came to $14.50 per person. Good value for money or what???
After a visit to Mustapha, and watching a really good dance video by Aishwarya Rai that I caught when I was in Bangalore, we went to the Cheesecake Cafe in Siglap. We had a round of White Hoegaardens and interesting flavoured cheesecakes (walnut, rum and raisin and cappuccino). I had a double scoop ice cream (strawberry and chocolate) which cost more than a cheesecake slice and at $7.50 was so not worth it. Otherwise, it was a great place to chill and catch up with each other. However, I noted that dessert per person cost more than dinner - could be the alcohol :p