Saturday, March 29, 2008

ladies who lunch

It's been a while since I've put up food pictures. So here a few for you to savour. DSD and I went for the ladies sushi lunch set ($28) at Kuriya at Shaw Centre on Thursday - I took a couple of days off to check out wedding stuff and she very kindly offered to accompany me. So to thank her for letting me drag her around, listening to people deliver more or less the same spiel, we had lunch at Kuriya. The lunch set changes every month, if I'm not wrong, and the quality is always pretty good.

We started off with a small salad of tuna and salmon, lightly grilled so that it's still raw on the inside.

Ladies Sushi Set at Kuriya - Sakura prawns, broad beans, grilled fish
Then this interesting combination of sakura prawns (slightly sweet), grilled broad beans in their pod, a grilled white fish and what was probably a braised bit of octopus.

Ladies Sushi Set at Kuriya - Bamboo shoot with tofu
Next was a delightful dish of fresh Japanese bamboo shoot, a light and very crisply battered and deepfried seafood cake, on top of some tofu/fish cake. (Sorry if my descriptions are wanting).

Ladies Sushi Set at Kuriya - Chirashi
And then a chirashi set, self-explanatory. It did come with a deepfried prawn, crunch it up, head and all.

The lovely set ended with a slice of strawberry cake and coffee or tea.

Kuriya
Shaw Centre
#05-01
1 Scotts Road
Tel: 6735 5300

Friday, March 28, 2008

good morning world

It's 0513. I've been lying in bed for the past 40 minutes, feeling tired and not being able to sleep. It's partly the heat, partly the whining of a mosquito that I just can't catch, and partly the many things running around in my head.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

YA fiction

It's been many years since I've wandered the aisles of the 'Young Adult' section in the library. But what gems there are to be unearthed! Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief has a fun plot, great characters, and after I finished it, I just couldn't wait to get started on the next books, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia. But I got sidetracked by Peter S Beagle's The Last Unicorn, which was first published in 1968, and which I only heard about last year when monoceros recommended it. It's a magical tale of a unicorn's search for her kind. I'm no good at writing book reviews, so I'll point you to a couple, and some on The Thief here.

As always, I welcome reading recommendations, YA or otherwise.

Listening: Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping



Sunday, March 23, 2008

Relish

Cluny Court’s been around for a pretty long time but it’s only in the past year (or less) that it’s been on many people’s radars. I live around the area so I’ve watched as it was built and then left pretty much empty for ages. It’s nice to see it filling up with a variety of shops and cafes. But so far I haven’t been really impressed by what I’ve eaten there. Erm, that is, at Karma Kettle & Rhapsody, where I had a pleasant, if forgettable Lavender Chicken some months back (I enjoyed the rice served with it more).

It was a humid Sunday afternoon when I walked over and went upstairs for the first time to eat at Relish. It’s a lovely space, lots of good light, a high ceiling, a simple, clean design. I like that when I sat down, I got served water straight away, without even having to ask for it. See DSD’s blog for an explanation. There is an interesting variety of burgers on the menu, like the Ram-lee burger, a Mexican burger, a Portobello mushroom burger, but you know what, I like my burgers pretty simple, at the most, add some strips of crispy bacon and cheese. And that’s what I had, the bacon and cheese burger ($19). J had the Wild Rocket burger. And we shared some home made onion rings. Those onion rings were good, thick slices in a nice crispy batter. The burgers were good, the meat was done just right (medium) but the bacon was quite forgettable. The burgers came with chips, which were a little bit too overdone for us. And later, as two ladies at the next table were served their burgers with salad, we realised that maybe we could’ve asked for an alternative to the chips. But no one told us that.

Sunday lunches are meant to be relaxing but at about 1pm, when the place was nearly full, mostly with young families, with kids’ voices echoing around us, it did get a bit too noisy to think. But it was on the whole, a lovely Sunday lunch.

#02-01 Cluny Court
501 Bukit Timah Road

Friday, March 21, 2008

Another list of things I did

In the past couple of weeks, I:

- Saw the Silly Fools in concert. Was waiting for them to sing their Thai songs, but everything was from their new album. In English. They only played one Thai song. Disappointed.

- Had a really sinfully good chocolate mousse cake thingy at B Bakery in Bussorah Street. Chocolate. Heaven.

- Turned up at 645pm (as requested by the coordinator) to help man the reception table at Mel’s wedding on Saturday, only to realise that quite a few guests had already turned up. At 645! A good 45 minutes before it was supposed to start. And a good 1hr 15 min before it actually started. Huge wedding. 61 tables!

- Went to Mt Faber. Saw a lot of construction. Went into a bar/restaurant thing with glass windows and a nice view but a strangely white wedding like table décor. Felt like we were gatecrashing a wedding or something. Decided we’d head over to Sentosa instead. Had drinks at Coastes. Really really hot, despite being in the shade. The fans whirled quite uselessly. Didn’t help that I wasn’t really dressed for the beach. Envied the vacationers. But Sentosa is starting to resemble a theme park. From the station attendants waving when the train thingy pulls up, to all the concrete and development that’s going on. And what’s with the fish with teeth at the Song of the Sea store?

- Ate at Din Tai Fung for dinner and then to the Shimbashi Soba place for Japanese dessert. They do a pretty yuzu konnayku dessert. Were the last to leave, but then we only get to see Em during those few times she heads back to Sg.

- Celebrated the sassy slumbering girl's birthday at Timbre, Substation. That girl wowed the crowd when she went onstage and sang 'Love Me'. Happy birthday! Hope you had a great time!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

There are many reasons for not updating this blog

1) Blogger screwed up and didn't 'Save Now'.
2) I was reading the millions of other blogs floating around in the blogosphere. Like the very excellent Book by its cover and Bookshelf
3) I was listening to Sons and Daughters, Vampire Weekend, Hafdis Huld,
4) I did an interview at Old School for a project I'm assisting on, then get stuck there when it starts to rain, and with that, the opportunity for a nice long lunch at Recess, where the folks do a pretty yummy black pepper duck sandwich.
5) I've been transcribing and translating, rather painfully, an interview conducted in Mandarin.

IMG_0293
4) Checking out La Cantina for a possible venue, then thinking of other venues, then relooking the possiblity of split events. I hope I only get married once, cos all this is not happening again.