Archive for the 'This I like' Category

Little garden doing well

Lyn (my boo) must have been doing something right to our pot of edible plants lately. After our first reap and side salad experiences, we harvested yet another lovely batch of veges for our takeaway lunch this week. At the rate things are going, I think she is ready to kick off more of such projects with other types of edible stuff (especially with a bigger space) once our new home is done.

We have some really grand plans with the home renovation and the planning phase is taking a little longer than we expect. At the rate things are going, I’m thinking maybe (just maybe) early November…aye..I digress once again.. :lol:


The pot before harvesting

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LED TVs these days are anorexic

It has been a while since I kept myself up to date with technology, so do forgive me if this is really old news. Lyn (my boo) and I were shopping at Millenia Walk’s Harvey Norman for a suitable dishwasher yesterday and chanced upon this huge 44″ LED TV by Samsung. Normally I wouldn’t pay any mind to it given that slim LEDs are the latest in television technology (yes and 3D too), but somehow, I felt this one was a little more special. I took a peek at the side and true enough, the slimmest LED television I’ve ever seen. According to Samsung, 0.3″…perhaps the width of your average pen…and it is 3D ready too. 8-O

Now how Samsung manage to shove all the HD goodness with 3D into something so slim, I’ll never understand. What I do know is that at about S$15,999 (if my memory serves me right), I think I’ll concentrate on something old for my new home…like the fat LCDs :-P .


Left: Side profile, can you see it? Kate Moss eat your heart out! | Right: Front profile..hey..pay attention!!

After note: Turns out that I am about six months late. T3 at CES 2010 (sometime in January me thinks) covered the Samsung LED 9000…drool~

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Aged beef

JC and I were walking to our regional office in New York sometime during April and passed by a restaurant displaying aged beef. Too bad we didn’t have the time for a visit. Maybe next time in New York. I am still thinking of it till this day…mmm…


Left and right: Lovely lovely aged beef

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Cooking Basmati with Google Translate

Leave the pan alone, Google Translate is here!! Just kidding! Lyn (my boo) wanted to do something different for dinner yesterday night and pulled out a box of Basmati she bought during her work trip in Bangalore last year. We initially thought that dinner was going to be ready in a jiffy until we saw that the instructions on the box were in French. She bought them from Carrefour…LOL!!

Thankfully, I logged on to Google Translate and in a matter of minutes, we got everything we wanted in English. To be honest, I was surprised how easy this attempt was given previous failed experiences with Babelfish some time back. Thanks to Google Translate, we had Basmati with chicken…a really good one… :)


Everything in French


All thanks to Google Translate


The resulting dish

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Apple opens two Nubox(es)

Mac lovers at Tampines and Raffles City can now rejoice with the opening of two new Apple Premium Resellers Stores. Located at Tampines Mall, #01-49, 4 Tampines Central 5, and at Raffles City Shopping Centre, #03-25, 252 North Bridge Road, Nubox is pretty much your one stop shop for anything Apple related (no..not the fruit) with a full range of Macs, iPods and tonnes of accessories. And yes, they’ll let you play with their Apples too.. ;)

Unfortunately I was not able to attend opening day at Tampines Mall last Friday but was received some really nice photos taken by two Canon cameras, an EOS 500D and 5D Mk II (sorry, I couldn’t help but check the Exif files..this is me digressing…again…). Figured I’d share two taken from the 5D Mk II with you (yes I’m bias :P ):


The nice store front. I like the curved glass…yes I’m in the market for interior designs now


Opening day

So know this – if you are looking for anything Apple related (again, not the fruit) and are in Tampines or Raffles City, pop over to Nubox and you will be fulfilled (yes I’m still talking about them allowing you to play with their Apples.. ;) ). Especially for the folks at Tampines, I understand that Nubox@Tampines Mall is perhaps the only Apple specialised store at that area (the rest are in some mega electronic stores which do not carry the full range). Opening hours are from 11 am to 9.30pm.

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Babboooooooooo!!

That very evening (after the Lucky Rice Talk + Taste and Shake Shack), the chefs and I decided to discover the culinary offerings of a celebrity chef and popped over to Mario Batali’s restaurant, Babbo. To be honest, I have never been to an authentic Italian restaurant (or at least I think it is authentic), and was really looking forward to dining there. Adding to that, I guess my meet up with Chef Batali at the Farmer’s Market the day before might have played a part in fueling my desire on a visit ~shrugs shoulders~.

I can’t for the life of me remember what happened that night given that it was a good four or so months between my visit and this article. But all I can remember was learning a couple of things from their wine sommelier and a little more about Italian food and how they are served. The damage that night was pretty decent with each of us footing about US$80 for a three (or four) course meal with wine. As always, the great company did make our night enjoyable as we laughed into the night with made up ridiculous jokes.

Food photography that night was a disaster with extremely dim lighting and a not so good camera. Again, one of those moments you wish you brought a better camera. Anyways, I have uploaded my attempts in my Flickr album, so if you still want to take a peep, just click here.


Perhaps the only decent photo, Baboo’s restaurant front

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Shake Shack not very shiok

After hearing so much about Shake Shack from the locals in New York, the chefs and a bunch of us decided to make our way to the popular burger joint in our bid to celebrate the work completed so far. Our plan was to allow the chefs to head back to the hotel for a quick shower after the Lucky Rice Talk + Taste while ST and I make our way there to queue. Upon arrival, ST and I almost passed out as we witnessed one of Singapore’s favourite past time…queuing.

The 80 meters or more queue really did give the chefs ample time to go back, shower and meet us and they arrived 45mins later only to find us smack in the middle. A good half hour later, we found ourselves face to face with the service staff and by that time, we knew exactly what we wanted. We took our seats minutes later and waited for another 15 mins or so before picking up our order at a separate counter.


Left: Somewhere in the middle of the queue | Right: A closer look at Shake Shack

Now one would think that the food served at the Shake Shack must be earth shattering given the long wait time. Unfortunately, we weren’t too impressed with both presentation and taste. Chefs and their experienced palates aside, we all had our fair share of junk food but this one doesn’t seem to cut it with the exception of some such as the Concrete Jungle shake.


Left: You order here… | Right: …and pick up here


Left and right: Our order


Left: Not so nice and greasy Double Cheeseburger | Right: Oh so yummy Concrete Jungle milkshake

However, as a complete food experience, it wasn’t that bad actually. The company was good, the weather was just right and we were fortunate enough to find enough seats without much hassle. After hearing so much about the burger joint, we knew we had to be fair to ourselves and give it at least a go. As a person who believes that taste is a mater of opinion, I suggest you too should give it a try and who knows, you may like them.. :)

More photos in my Flickr album here.

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Side salad

Lyn (my boo) was extremely motivated after our first reap experience about two months back and added more (much more) effort in taking care of our tiny salad garden. We attempted a couple more mini reaps following that and got ambitious two nights ago as we harvested enough to make a side salad to accompany our dinner. After throwing in a little homemade salad sauce, tiny slices of apple and walnuts, we tucked in victoriously. I must say, her gardening skills has improved… ;)


Left: Our harvest | Right: Our side salad with dill, mizuna, rocket, baby mint and baby spinach

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Grand Feast of Flavours

So after about two days of mucking around New York (here and here), JC, the chefs and I reluctantly got our butt back to work. This time, we were faced with guests of about 1,000 as Chefs Willin, Ryan and Gino joined an intimidating list of top New York chefs and restaurants such as Jean-Georges restaurants as well as three-Michelin star restaurants, Daniel and Le Bernardin, while keeping Singapore’s culinary flag high. Again..no pressure there guys.. ;)

Thankfully for us, the Lucky Rice Grand Feast is a black tie event held at the Mandarin Hotel that boasts a fantastic view of Central Park. To us, this means that the ambience is already taken care of and all the guests need to do is to eat in comfort. With a modest budget on hand, some of us had to play the role of booth designers as we attempted to fill our tables with whatever Peranakan decorations we brought from Singapore.

The event for us proofed successful as Willin’s Seabass Carpaccio Salad and Black Olive Kueh Pie Ti completely ran out after a few hours. Even celebrity and Michelin star chef Daniel Boulud took some time to pop over and tried both Willin’s dishes. We then spent the rest of our free time sipping on various types of Japanese sake and whiskeys from the Japanese booths and other types of alcohol we could get our hands on. Yes there is an open bar and this time I didn’t miss it. Needless to say, we returned to our hotel happy…very happy.. :)


Left: The chefs got some help from French Culinary Institute’s Susannah | Right: Doing some prep work


Left: Jonathan Wrigth from Setai | Right: A huge huge display of Bi Bim Bak (hope I got the spelling right)


Left: Japanese whiskey | Right: Chef Brad Farmerie returns with crispy fried oysters


Left: Asiate’s smoked tofu | Right: Le Bernardin’s Black Sesame Panna Cotta


Left and Right: Chef Boulud trying out the kueh pie ti | Right: The drinking begins

Check out the event video produced by the Lucky Rice folks and more photos in my Flickr album here.

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Learning to run Barefoot

Hang on!! Just in case you think that I have successfully completed a barefoot run…think again. All I’m trying to do is to adjust my running posture, reduce injury and perhaps run longer…much longer. Since the days of yore, running to me has always been a pain in the butt (not literally) and completing 2.4km takes a whole lot more effort for me given that I have already surrendered mentally. Not that I can’t complete but somehow running wasn’t my thing. These days, I view running as a personal achievement.

Recently, I have been heading back to the gym after going through a number of irregular sessions and made a commitment to get back to my routine again such as running and basic core stuff…in addition to eating right (looks at Lyn, my boo). After speaking to a number of friends including barefoot(‘ish) marathon runners, they helped reinforced a significant number of messages from barefoot running articles that we’ve been noticing everywhere in the media. Discussion topics like posture and pre-Nike (and their airbag technology) were some items they brought up which intrigued me. I guess everything is interesting if humour is added… ;)

Now before I go out of context again, allow me to steer us back. A couple of days back I chanced upon this really helpful video for those who are interesting in running with the right posture and at the same time conserve energy and minimise injury. If you want to go beyond that and start running barefoot, hey by all means go ahead but according to my friends..take it easy. Don’t get me wrong, I am no running guru so don’t ask me for advise..unless you want me to see me sucking my thumb and giving that dumb blonde look. Le’ts just call this sharing. Hope you folks will find this video useful… :)

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