What we got for less than S$20 at the Singapore food fair

I didn't have $ so I had to borrow $20 from Mr Bear. Bär and I wandered around the hall. Hmm what can we get for $20?

First I got two Portugese eggtarts (S$2) because Bär and I were starved. We had lost Mr Bear at one point when he walked out to answer a call because there was a very noisy "getai"-like performance on stage. So we wandered on and found that the Pocky stall selling a goody bag for S$6. It came with a blown-up Pocky stick, and 9 boxes of Pocky of really weird flavors, like pizza, chilli crab!? 3 boxes expire in Aug, 3 boxes expire in Nov, and the remaining 3 expire in 2014.

I bought some fresh cherry tomatoes and eggplants for S$2.50, and some Korean beer for S$3 a bottle. I wanted to buy soju (S$11) but the stall only wanted cash payments and I hardly had enough to buy a bottle. I also bought two cans of preserved vegetables and gluten (S$2), which goes great with porridge. Finally I also bought a S$1 goody bag (worth S$4) at Gardenia Bread, which was available only to PAssion members, after they buy a bag of bread. I bought some ciabatta (S$2.20), and looking into the bag, I noticed that there was an energy bar, a can of tuna (what the f?) and a bag of hot dog buns. 

So that was S$18.70 and I had S$1.30 in change!

Weekend at the Countryside

Last week, I cajoled Bobo to bring me out, so we went to Kranji reservoir after stopping by a McDonald's drive-thru. The tide predictions online were so crap, when we arrived, the tide was rising already. In the end I only managed to dig out two mussels which neither Bobo and I like to eat. So he made me throw it back into the sea.

Huge sheets of rain came tumbling down while I was washing the sand off my feet, so we ran back to the car, a little wet from the rain. So feeling a little cold, we decided to stop off at Bollywood veggies to drink some hot beverages instead of going home immediately. Later when it stopped, we drove to Thow Kwang Pottery, which is now accessible from a side road near NTU, versus the past where it had its own ulu road. This is because JTC has taken back most of the land, and even the old kiln is sitting on leased land. It is the one of the two remaining wood fired kilns in Singapore. Already when we went this time, the pond and the treehouse are gone. It is going to be gone in end 2014, and the other kiln, in 2015. I can never understand why Singapore never retains any of its past. If it was on prime land, I can understand, but I suppose with the anticipated increase in population, everything will be prime land.

Bobo bought me a porcelain duck (I have another one which my aunt gave me, also from Thow Kwang), some vegetable chopstick rests and a small procelain picture which I intend to hand on my wall.

Kirche Wedding

Today is Miss Bear's wedding. I wish her ever lasting bliss and happiness with her husband...

Knew her for almost 20 years. How time flies... and funnily how we all ended up with different people from what we envisioned when we used to sit on our old school steps. Well 3 down, 2 more to go.

Insanely good food at Saveur Singapore

Taken by my lovely camera before its lens went kaputt (S$6.90)

Mr Bear said the night scenery at Gardens by the Bay was very nice and that he was going to bring Mrs Bear there Samstag night. So being the shameless thick-skinned thing I am, I immediately put up a paw and asked if we could go along.

So Mr Bear said, ok, how about dinner? I reassured that I would have no problem finding a place as long as he told me his budget.

S$20 a head? Wtf? On a Saturday night... Flexing my fingers, I dug deep into the Internet and found Saveur.

Saveur used to operated as a food stall by two Shatec (I missed their old training restaurants, Rosette and Petals) graduates in a kopitiam called Ali Baba Eating House (I kid you not) located along Joo Chiat. It later moved to its current location in Purvis Street. The place is so popular that it does not take reservations. Instead you will queue up obediently for one of its 60 seats.

B1 and I got lost, because I remembered wrongly Purvis Street as the street near Bugis MRT station. Nope, it is near City Hall station behind Raffles Hotel and perpendicular from the National Library. We left our names, after someone kindly told us to (you see, everyone was bizarrely standing in a line, even though the restaurant has opened for dinner). Then we wandered to Mani.cur.ious like I said before.

When Mr and Mrs Bear showed up, bizarrely dressed in bermudas and polo tees, B1 and I were sweating like mad. A middle aged lady had even fainted from the heat. Yup, the food is worth fainting for. Finally we got our seats, where we were served iced water very promptly without being asked, a totally appreciated gesture.

I insisted that it was a goose when we saw it on the signboard. Turns out it was a Duck

We had been standing outside the restaurant like little match girls, we noticed this signboard about their pasta being available for takeaways. Must be very popular, we concluded, so B1 and Mr Bear both ordered that. Me, I ordered foie gras with creamy lentils and pickled pearl onions, while Mrs Bear, bread rolls and Soup of the Day (which was Mushroom soup). 

Sorry, usually I wouldn't order bread rolls unless I know who made them. (S$2)

The pasta was most excellent. Al dente, with just the right touch of flavorsome chili oil. One thing I didn't get was why it was minced meat sauce in the menu, when it tasted like tuna to me. B1 liked the crunch of the little sakura ebi (I skipped that because I don't like prawns).

Mushroom Soup. Ok, nothing exciting. (S$4.90)

My foie gras was a wee bit crispy and then all creamy and gooey and yummy inside, all of the right kind. Not like that horrible place Two Face Pizza that burnt it. Just the right amount of sear. Swoon....I would have preferred the apple-infused port wine and vanilla bean, but I decided to save some $$ for dessert.

Just the right amount of sear (S$7.90)

Then it was onto the entrees. I chose the braised short ribs, Mrs Bear, the pan-seared bass, and the guys, the duck confit, because everyone else was ordering it.

Duck Confit (S$10.90)

 The duck confit was pretty awesome, though a bit chao tah (burnt), I thought. B1 loved the mushrooms (duh, he being a mushroom nut after all).  It was fragrant and not the least bit gamy and ducky. B1 insisted I try even though I didn't eat much duck ever since it entered my non-edible list because I like ducks.

Pan-seared sea bass (S$14.90)

Mrs Bear mmm-mmmed through her pan-seared sea bass. She kept commenting that it was juicy. I had to restrain myself from saying "moist, you say it's moist, not juicy." I am naughty and fussy that way. But she was sort of right, the fish flaked easily at the fork and was moist and flavorful.

It was during dinner that we had a pretty wild conversation about foreign brides. It was brought up because Mr Bear realized that he had dressed really down and other diners really dressed up well for dinner. Duh, it's a French restaurant, after all, on Purvis Street. Besides cheap and good eats then party in some club downtown is a good idea. I pointed out to Mrs Bear that there were a lot of local girls dressed up and eating with Caucasian men. I remembered a conversation with an online friend, who said that the Thai women who migrated to his country were ugly and married to really old men. I realized that these women were actually smarter than me. They get to stay at home and keep home without having to worry about where their next meal was coming from. Whereas I studied all the way to MSc, but have to work like mad everyday.

Mrs Bear replied "but they have to please the old man, you know?"

"We have it worse," I retorted. "We have to please our bosses at work. Come home and have to please the old man at home too." Got the evil eye from B1 for that. hehe.

Braised short rib (S$14.90)

Finally my braised short rib came. It was worth the wait. It was soft and tender, and had my favorite mesclun salad and vinaigrette dressing. Yum yum. I thought the gratin wasn't as hot as it should be though.

Strawberries with basil sorbet (I forgot what was the price, it was a special)

We decided on our desserts. I got the strawberry special with basil sorbet, which tasted great! Too bad Mr Bear kept stealing from me. :( He and his wife shared a chocolate mousse with crushed hazelnuts. B1 ordered Textures of Citrus, which was blood orange jelly served with orange granité, freeze-dried pineapple, feuilletine, citrus segments, and lime zest. I didn't like his much.

Textures of Citrus (S$6.90)

Chocolate and Hazelnut (S$7.90)

The entire bill came out to be about S$120, which was pretty excellent, considering what we ate. It was really worth fainting for. I would definitely come back here to eat.

In a nutshell,

Saveur

5 Purvis Street, 

Talib Court #01-04 

Singapore 188584

[20 Jan 2013] OpenHouse at MBFC [Part 2] - MBFC

When the tour started, the guide introduced himself as Phillip and gave us some background on the events. He also said that the tour will last 2 hours and we would be covering different areas in the Raffles area culminating with a visit to the DeutscheBank trading floor. I was glad we got Phillip as a guide because he was very informative and took pains to explain everything clearly to us, even about the Custom House (I posted about the Oyster Bar there before).

We saw 4 of the 12 exhibits/performances at MBFC itself. Just walking out of the makeshift waiting room (which was a function room), we saw Mintio's photograph exhibit capturing all the colors and shapes that local shopping malls and office buildings make against the Singapore nightscape in a sort of giant film-roll.

Phillip looks for a Shelf Help buch... just kidding

Then we took a lift to the cafeteria area where we saw studioKALEIDO’s “Shelf Help”. It pokes fun at our love of self-help by having a hilarious display of self-help books which all have blank pages within.The Pièce de résistance is all on the book cover. You laugh at the title and then you turn to the back and laugh some more. My favorite is naturally "How to Accept That This Shit is As Good As It Gets" because its advice captured my favorite catchphrase... "Suck it up..." I wanted to buy that book. Seriously.

Book Cover of My Life

Inside the Book

My Life Philosophy captured in the book. Couldn't be better described than "Tiny Plasticine Penis"

I loved the display so much that it was the single artwork that got the most fotos from me. Enjoy the next few fantastic "Shelf Help" books.

Important life skill I should learn

Another one I should learn...suffice to say, I am better at cutting them.

WTF is an armchair general?

Moving on, we walked to the windows where we saw Joy Ho drawing onto her display with the Marina Bay Sands as her backdrop.  As the rest were happily clicking away, I eyeballed the strangely large number of cleaning aunties and even an uncle hovering nearby on a non-working Sunday. Weird, then I too became super involved in trying to capture Joy's artwork against the city backdrop nicely when the cleaner aunties and uncle suddenly broke into dance to "Bengawan Solo".

Joy Ho drawing away

Das me?

Their cheerfulness and enthusiasm were definitely heartening, and we cheered them appreciatively. The idea is that usually most people would be busy going about their lunch and work and ignoring these (really working there) cleaners who fade into the background while clearing dirty dishes and wiping down tables. 

"I am going to kill the cockroach with this dishcloth!!!"

"我要代表月亮惩罚你" Sailor Moon style

"I caught a fish this big"

[20 Jan 2013] OpenHouse at MBFC [Part 1] - Start of La Tour

This guy is quite a cutie huh :D Hope he didn't think I was secretly taking photo of him. Because in the two photos taken here, he was smiling into the camera both times. Hahahaha. I just thought it was a very nice way to capture everyone's interest in an artsy fartsy way.

I alternate between dreading and looking forward to this series of posts about the third Open!House event at Marina Bay Financial Centre. One, it is going to be super long. Yet, of all the activities so far of 2013, I find this one of the most interesting art events I have attended. I am super glad that I managed to catch it on its last weekend. I missed the Tiong Bahru Open!House which would have been the piece de resistance especially since I used to walk there once a week and I used to and still am EATEN with curiosity on how do the enclave residents live there. I know that there are a lot of people who are involved in the local art scene in one way or another living there, so needless to say their apartments will be super arty and pretty.

I myself am still trying to decorate my own apartment walls with my kiddy art. I am still not done, so that's why I am not posting anything yet.

But I digress. Anyway I am still super disappointed that I missed the event going right under my nose (stupid me). So when I got to the MBFC registration desk to pay my S$20 registration fee, I vaguely "face2palm"ed when the registrar said to me "you look really familiar, did you attend our event last year at Tiong Bahru?"

To tell you the truth, I get rather intimidated when I meet really arty farty people and I hear them talking in their snobbish accents. So when the tour guide of the initial tour I joined said that we were oversubscribed and asked if some of us could wait the extra 15 minutes and join the next tour, I was totally ok with it (also because my companion Miss Bear had gone to the WC), especially when someone else in the tour said in a targeted tone, "We have been waiting for fifteen minutes."

So I moved to the next tour (it was a win because we got Phillip as tour guide) and twiddled with the pass we were all given when we wrote down our details (MBFC requirement). Our passes were colored according to which tour we were on, to differentiate between the numerous participants. And there were many!

Click on the label OpenHouse to read more about the event (ok, I am still posting, so wait a bit before clicking).

[3rd Feb 2013] Pop Up Noise @ Woodlands Civic Centre

We were in the area (ok, it was deliberate on my part) because I wanted to return my books at the library located within the Woodlands Civic Centre. It was a rainy day, as usual, and we were late for our dinner appointment, so pardon for the 'blur' quality of some of the fotos. I also note that my hands are getting rather shaky nowadays and it affects the quality of my fotos quite badly.

Pop-up Noise Setup just outside Woodlands Civic Centre

I am not sure whether it was because it had been there for at least two weeks but there were thankfully, not many people at the exhibition, despite the heavy foot traffic between the Centre and the main mall, CausewayPoint. 

Food related art :D

Prawn Mee - Prawn luxuriating in hot soup

There weren't many exhibits and some of the artists I had seen before at the last year's event at ION, e.g. Ziqi, who is a Malaysian artist based in Singapore. 

By Ziqi

Also seen before, artwork by local artists

B1 likes the Priestess (top left)

My favorite set of pictures, esp the bottom right and middle

Just like last year, there were alot of free and fun stuff to try. This exhibition allows you to make your own postcards or take the ones which are being circulated for free (Bär and I already took some at Orange Thimble). You could also draw on the drawing board, which I didn't because we were rushing to the library and onto our next appointment. 

Check out Noise Singapore to not miss out anything on the local art scene today.

Didn't drive Ms Daisy

Instead I drove Missess Chrysanthemums and some weird plant I am not sure what is its English name. The backseat was pretty crowded :D

Mutter instructed me to come last Samstag to meet them at the garten because Tante S (who is a Trader) was going to the nursery to buy flowers to give her biggest clients. She knew that I was forever buying pots, and to discourage thieves, I always buy them really big and heavy, so I can only carry one or two at a time.

My backseat passengers

In return for her discount at the nursery, I drove her Chrysanthemums back to the garden, where they will wait to be transported to her clients' place.

[19 Jan 2013] Handmade Movement Singapore

The rain was relentless. It started since Friday night, and continued all the way till late Saturday afternoon. Which was bad, because it was the inaugural Handmade Movement Singapore craft fair & pretty ironic that they chose an otter for their mascot.

We got lost looking for the place because we drove, and got lost in the maze of streets that was City Hall- Fort Canning area. We parked at Armenian street, thinking that it would be very crowded at Fort Canning's carpark, and then we fought, in our usual way, about where the fuck Fort Canning Green was. The rain was a real damper, and B1's mood was even stormier. I could understand, seeing how he was being dragged out of bed and into the rain hunting for something he wasn't even interested in.

Our favorite word "scheidung" was uttered plenty, you'd bet. 

In the end, we followed the music (B1 disagreed, arguing that it was probably music coming from a restaurant). Thankfully it was mercifully loud or we would have continued walking up the Fort Canning Hill.   

What it was supposed to look like



The actual scene

Instead of the lovely garden picnic scene that the organizers envisioned, it was more like bodies crowding into the big tent trying to stay dry against the merciless rain. I dragged the whiny B1 into the various smaller tents, ignoring the squishy sounds that my canvas shoes were making, trudging through the mud.

The main tent

The Milo van was a welcome sight and B1 was in a nicer frame of mind after getting pumped with the restorative Milo. We did a quick round around the stalls checking out the wares (it was a very quick round because I was FAMISHED) before buying some lunch from the Travelling Cow. Food truck in Singapore, so cool! :)

Traveling Cow's Mac and Cheese

I wasn't being a witch, seriously, but I really like mac and cheese, so I bought that, totally forgetting B1 HATES macaroni. Still, he ate it after much grumbling. Then we went one more round around the main tent.  Everyone was selling handmade items (naturally), mostly stitched work, which looked really well-made and some, even exceptionally pretty. There were stalls selling unique wallets and purses, e.g. a wallet for the kiddies to store their crayons. I admire their effort, considering my love and (mostly) hate relationship with my sewing machine.

cards and postcards on sale at evonleangelis' stall

I really like the postcards that evonleangelis made, and was so taken I kept walking back to her stall. I wanted to buy one of the displays, which was a framed picture of animals. B1 even agreed to buy it for me. I wanted to hang it on my walls, but as I was saying to B1, it was so going to make my own artwork look like shit.

evonleangelis' postcards

My artwork is spared the critique, because damn, it wasn't for sale. The picture was a sample of an invitation card she did for a previous client for a child's birthday. Double burn!

There were also ongoing performances and workshops. The free workshops were fully booked by the time I found about the event, but due to the rainout, there were still spaces available. I wanted to participate but B1's mood was darkly "verboten"ing.

She Falls Asleep

"She Falls Asleep" was bravely performing in a nearby tent, heavy raindrops forming a melancholic backdrop. Nothing against their music, but why is everyone and her grandmother channeling the Zooey Deschanel "New Girl" girlish style nowadays? And why is that style always associated with artsy fartsy events? I am growing tired of this trend.

Harmonograph made by two perpendicular, pendulating sticks weighed down by bricks

Greeting cards

The Science Centre also made its presence felt by having young scientists help visitors make harmonographs.  I bought a little something for Bär at one of the stalls specializing in doughcraft. This reminds me of the time I tried doughcraft with C, and not knowing that they are supposed to be small and cute, I made a huge bread-like thing. It soon developed mold despite the varnish and had to be chucked out.  

Dessert Bar's ornaments are super cute

All in all, it was a pity that it was raining. Otherwise it would have been pretty awesome. Very garden party style. And I loved that it was all high-quality handmade stuff, and not the usual China made products on sale pasar-malam style, in a casual setting with lots of activities and workshops.

One thing I would complain would be that the space was very narrow for the crowd they expected, given that the potential number didn't show due to the rain and we were still squeezing past people despite that fact. Perhaps the organizers will take note of this and maybe choose a more favorable place like Paya Lebar airport, so there will be shelter from the rain.