New debit card, shopping and Standing Sushi Bar

It was an eventful day. I was practically out of office the whole day.

I went to the bank to drop some cheques for the CEO. Though he is a Privilege Banking member, I can’t join the Priority Q.

Apparently, it’s supposed to be for personal banking only. And since he issued the cheques to some corporate account, it’s not included in the Privilege Banking service.

Anyway, I was let into something interesting also. UOB is going to launch the new debit card by next week, where the card can be used as a cashcard, ezylink, ATM, tap-to-pay and debit card. My debit card is due to expire this Dec, and I was actually invited to sign up for some gold card. But the CSO told me not to sign for that but to sign for this new platinum card. The ezylink and cashcard actually had a separate account, and requires top up manually. So even if the card is lost, it does not mean unlimited usage by whoever who picks up. There will still be a cap.

Interesting. I think I will take it up. Moreover, I do not have an ATM card anymore (it spoilt donkey years ago) and so I need another new one by its expiry end of this year.

With barely time to rest, I headed down to Orchard in the rain.

Chose a few ties, and got 3 lady-style pens from Mikimoto.

Only had lunch at 3pm+. By then I kinda lost my appetite.

Few hours later, I headed down to CBD. For what?

Standing sushi bar!

We were late due to the accidents and meetings and such. However, dinner was very enjoyable. We kind of were the first one there, and thought how come it was so empty.

Minutes later, the full force came and filled the place.

Icybabe and me had some food to taste while waiting for the Paradizer to arrive.

Miso soup, salmon skin handrolls for starters.

Both very good. Yumz.

Then we ordered sake toro nigiri, inari gunkan, mekajiki nigiri.

Then sake toro and sake sashimi.

Finally we had sake toro aburi style. That was the ultimate dish of last nite.

First we must put the whole thing in the mouth, within seconds after it’s served. At least enough time to let the Paradizer snap a photo of it.

Splendid. I think that was an understatement actually.

Here’s what we had. Part of it.

*Photos taken with Blackberry Bold.
*Logo of ’standingsushibar’ taken from standingsushibar.wordpress.com.

3 sessions to Halloween

Last Saturday I became 狗仔队. Glad that we managed to pull off the surprise.

Session 1:

It was tiring actually, for I was greatly involved in session 1 and 2. Anyway, that enabled me to visit the Underwater World for the first time ever. And I think I will never visit it again.

Not when I went round the tank for like…10 times?

A lot of people were also at the Underwater World. So much so, I felt a bit claustrophobic too.

Our destination

Here we are…

Fur seal! Take photo with it need money lor.

*yawn*

Freaking long tail

Jellyfishes that change from red to…

…to yellow

Mimic octopus, which btw also can change colour too

Nautilus

Beautiful silhouette of a dugong

Was supposed to wait for WK and FT to appear for their dive session but their briefing and preparation took a long time. In the end, I had to go to location #2, Siloso Beach Resort to prepare the room. But it was fun doing up the room and setting the camera secretly to capture his reaction.

Lunch at Saraceno

*This entry was first written on 24 Oct 2009*

Earlier this last week, CEO came into office in a good mood (probably also coz he took a long break for Deepavali) that he told me to go find a place for lunch for the whole department. Actually I thought I heard him say the next day’s lunch but then by 12pm I realised it wasn’t, and was supposed to be TODAY.

To cut things short, someone suggested to go to Saraceno at Duxton Road Bejaya Hotel. Italian!

I did a fast check on what I was to expect for lunch. Hmm…good reviews. I made a call, but found the receiver of the call a bit no standard. I asked for 18 pax but then he thought I said 5. Plus he was like speaking so softly and I couldn’t even hear what he was trying to say. Anyway, I managed to get the reservation done before I had the urge to scream at him.

SERVICE.

I find the service so-so only. I think they were trained to do things some ways. Coz we had 18 pax, we took nearly an hour to settle down and order food. They go from the ladies first, then to the guys. My CEO got impatient and wanted the guy to bring the ladies orders to the kitchen first then take the guys’ orders, but they explained that the food will come out at different timings which would not be good.

Well.

Most of us ordered starters. But for some reason, my soup of the day didn’t come until last. Another guy colleague had his soup that came before me, then they seemed to have stopped serving us food before I reminded him of my soup.

Second, my main. When they laid the cutlery, I knew something was wrong. I was having lamb but was handed a table knife. My colleague next to me, on the other hand, was having fish but she got a steak knife. Hmm…I was looking at my knife thinking, I bet I’m going to have problem with cutting lamb with that knife.

True enough, the waiter laid the lamb on my colleague’s front. I told him I’m the one having the lamb before he realised a mistake again.

Lastly, when the bill came, there were some discrepancies on the bill. We were overcharged on the alcohol. Didn’t understand why when it came to food order taking, only one did the work, but when in terms of serving drinks, a few of them took the order.

And because of that, the food order taking took some time, and still ended up with mistakes, and the drinks had extra orders entered into the system.

FOOD.

Food quality was not bad. They served 3 types of bread, and we curbed our hungry tummies with them.

My appetiser was the pumpkin soup of the day. It was generally quite thick but not overpowering, and with the sweet taste of pumpkin with every mouthful. Only thing is, I think it didn’t come piping hot, which I would much prefer.

My main was the lamb chop with some sauce (can’t remember). I like how they manage with the doneness (I asked for medium rare) and it came just right. But I didn’t really like the sauce that came with it. I thought it took away the natural taste of the lamb and frankly, I much preferred the ones they served at Tanglin Club. But one thing to comment, no lamb-y smell.

Dessert was panna cotta with Amaretto. That was good. I like how the bitterness of the liqueur complemented with the slight sweet taste. And I think I felt a bit high from the dessert after that which surprised me coz I CAN’T BE THAT BAD A DRINKER RIGHT?

Overall, I give a better rating to the food quality rather than the service. It was uncalled for because they even took down orders on paper and still, mistakes were made.

Hopefully they can improve on their service, and…pls set up a website for this restaurant coz I couldn’t find anything on it except from food reviews and articles.

Last Sunday was declared taitai day

I finally made a visit to ION. Haha, like so suaku.

The Paradizer and me acted taitai for the afternoon on Sunday lusting after all sorts of branded goods. We went from Paragon to Taka to ION before we ended up at Heeren for dinner.

Taka was having it’s anniversary sale and Agnes b was filled with people. 10% off and additional 15% if you are Taka credit card/DBS Black Card holder. Other branded stuff had almost the same discount. So the whole mall was filled with people.

Went to A|X coz she needed to see if there is anything she could get for a fren’s birthday. We thought it was horrible to get a guy’s present and she asked me whether the shirt looks ok for a person I’ve not seen before. Haha.

Presents for ladies are easier to get. Always.

We nearly got a top each, and me a bag and skirt.

We have such discipline coz we didn’t get anything for ourselves in the end, despite passing thru many more A|X shops in between. Wahaha~

Then we went to Bottega to check out some wallets and bags, Mont Blanc for some pen-window-shopping before we went to ION. I went to see the shoes that I saw on the mag at this shop called New Look. Unfortunately, the shoes doesn’t look as good as in the mag (the difference is a lot lor!), and the Paradizer said I look scary on such high heels.

Then we went to LV to check out bags and prices, before I BBM SC to check out the price in Cologne, and to buy if it was a lot cheaper. Wahaha. The Paradizer was grinning from ear to ear with the hope that she can buy her dream organiser cheaper.

Oh ya, there is this cool stationary shop in ION called Kikki K, which you’ll see all sorts of cool stuff and organisers and calendars on sale. I nearly wanted to get one for myself till the Paradizer says we can DIY ourselves. Idea sia. Haha.

After feeling taitai-ish, we headed for Blue Basil for dinner, only to find out a group of people having a shoot in there. Sian. Have to walk back, ended up at Heeren which looks super isolated now. I told her no Waraku pasta for me, so we had dinner at Fish&Co.

And thus, we missed out buying the sashimi again at Paragon. Sheesh.

I miss my fish.

Schweinshaxe, Meatballs and Crocs

Nothing much happening over the weekend, except that I explored T3 more intensively, because of the Crocs sale.

I’m peeling more badly now. So I just can’t be bothered with the lotion. My face is done, so no need to camouflage which I didn’t really quite like.

Went for the Oktobest fest themed buffet at Tanglin Club on Fri. Frankly, it wasn’t spectacular, coz the meats were left in the open for some time, so the pork knuckles were a bit tough and some of the crackles were dried up and hard. And being a meaty buffet, I only took 2 servings, both barely full.

I missed the one I went to a year before, where we were served fresh knuckles and did the cutting ourselves.

And what to finish off a meaty meal with? A meaty movie.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs. 3D no less.

The whole theatre was empty. So I could just put my legs up the seats in front. The whole movie was quite entertaining, I like. The food just kept appearing and mutating and I could see burgers right in front of me. Then the others like ice cream and meatballs spaghetti and pizzas. Luckily we’ve had a full dinner.

It served as a relief to the headache which came to me a hour before office closing time, due to some cowardly people who would rather choose the easy way out and offend the customer than to speak to my boss.  *blood boiling*

Saturday, it was busy in the office after 2 weeks of quietness. First week was quiet coz it was a long weekend. The 2nd was quiet coz it was the F1 period.

Then last weekend, it was so busy that I needed some sleep after the last batch of customers had left.

Despite being the Mid Autumn Festival, there was no moon sighted. Coz it was drizzling the whole day and pretty cloudy. Not to mention that the haze was blocking also.

We went to the Crocs sale, with the FOX and Borders and Adidas all having discounts on their products at the same time. But the crowd was with Crocs, as others were not spectacular at all. Bought 2 pairs of Sassari, one for me and one for my mum, but sizes were quite difficult to find. I wanted to get Athens too but sizes tad too big.

New stocks supposed to be in on Thu. Wondering if I should go check it out again.

My mum was very happy with my purchase and she wore it out the next day for breakfast.

Oh, dun bother about the Borders sale, unless you like hardcovers. Plentyyyyy of them.

We had dinner/supper at this Xin Wang HKG cafe. I think the food there is pretty good. But I was disappointed that the red bean drink came ice blended. Yes, the beans were blended with the ice. Not original leh.

But their (apparently new) papaya soup noodles was niceeeeeeee. It’s the same style as the CQYD noodles, but it’s a different soup base. MUST TRY!

But damn it. Extra carbo loaded. I thought they were having dinner at Kembangan where we first met before heading for T3, and I ordered beehoon goreng. They said they were eating too. Only fries.

That’s why I said it was dinner/supper.

Of cakes and pork

It’s 30mins to long weekend and everyone is on standby (waiting to go home) and holiday (long weekend leh!) mode. The cold weather is making us lazy too.

Was at Paragon just now to get the cheesecake that CEO wanted. I asked him, how big you want the cake to be, and whether Hilton’s one is ok. He said, anything. In the end I went to buy one at Bakerzin coz I’ve tasted the cheesecake there before and I felt it was good. Anyway, he asked for good one. So I thought that would be ok.

I checked on their website that a 23cm Ø cake cost about $58. Good. Expensive enough. I got AA to check if they’ve got a whole cake for me since he works at Paragon, and he did a reservation for me.

I went to collect it and paid, they charged me about $42. Then I used my Citbank credit card to pay, it ended up only about $38.

Not expensive enough now.

Went for lunch there at Dome, coz I thought that place should be quieter than other places during lunch, after it no longer occupied the first floor. Big mistake. Their Hawaiian pork chop, which I had, barely filled my tummy. I only felt NOT-HUNGRY, not full. It was only warm, and I wonder where do they now bring their food up from (last time they’ve got a kitchen just next to their outlet at first floor).

The place is nice and quieter, but I think no more food for me next time (if I ever go back there again). Coffee/drinks should be better, since they make it at their outlet premises.

And barely 4 hours later, I feel hungry again.

Looking forward to the Kims Hokkien Mee dinner later…

Tummy reloaded

The whole week was just hectic. Tummy-wise.

Wed was the 7th month dinner, and the last of the many years. Everything was made simple, without the usual bidding noise. Instead, it was replaced by the opera happening on the small stage. But I got a bad place. Right in front of the speaker.

Today, it was just catered dishes instead of the usual restaurant affair.

Instead of the cold blasting aircon, all we had was natural breeze. And plenty of participation from the side coz some residents stood/sat in front of the stage to watch the opera.

It was a rushed one towards the end. Before residents start to complain, and of coz they needed to tidy up the place and take back all the chairs and tables.

No more next time…

Thursday, I met the Paradizer for dinner. I finally had the soba at Paragon basement. Food there is slightly more expensive than other Japanese restaurants. And I found it not as crowded as the other times I walked past.

The soba was pretty good though. It’s firm and springy. Not soggy like some badly cooked soba.

Paragon is undergoing some massive renovation and I see shops like Coach and Jimmy Choos sprouting out. And the middle part of the basement where the food used to be, is covered. I guess there might be more new eateries coming up.

Oh, I wanted to buy some sashimi from the Paragon supermarket. I reached there just in time at 7pm, and they were packing up the fish to keep them. I tried my luck, asking if they were closed already. Yep, they operate until 7pm, the guy said. And nope, THEY WERE NOT HARD UP FOR MY BUSINESS. Sheesh. They offered some alternative like the cut mixed sashimi, but I just want my Kajiki!!!!! Sad~

Friday…I was a bit disappointed at the turnout of the dinner coz initially it was slightly more than 10 pax that was supposed to attend, but it finally turned out to be only like half of the whole group. Anyway, they did enjoy the food at Dallas and their specialty ribs. And the Dallas cheesecake which didn’t even feel sick when 4 of us devoured the cake with the very full stomach. I love the mashed potato that I ordered. The sausages weren’t that enjoyable though.

Saturday. We went for some real Peranakan food. It was to welcome WK’s fren from Philippines who specialises in tech diving. Nah…not me who’s interested in that. Just went to offer my tummy to store some food. Heh. But while the food is superb (4.5 out of 5 stars), the lady boss sucks (1 out of 5 stars). According to G, they just changed the boss and I wanna first slap her on the face before offering her a hearing aid. She can’t hear (nor understand) what we were asking for, and she told us directly at 9.30pm that the restaurant is closed (we were the last table/group there). G was puzzled coz he remembered it was 10pm closing.

True enough, the door printed CLEARLY the closing time is 10pm.

What a way to do business. Stupid bitch.

Sunday, we went to have steamboat. They didn’t have lamb *boohoo* so I loaded myself with just chicken, pork, mushrooms and beancurd strips. 2 plates. Enough to stuff me for the whole nite until I still felt full at 1am+ and it detoxed me for the whole morning, today.

Now you know why I twittered this.

Made worse when the last trip to the loo and I realised there was no toilet paper and that no water came out from the hose.

Guess what I did?

No la…didn’t use hand.

Thank god I’m a lady. Thank god we lose some blood every month. Thank god there were envelopes to wrap things up.

Yep, use the envelope la!

Filled to the brim

I think I am really eating too much nowadays.

Went for dinner just now with JL, AA and TC. Passed them gifts I bought from Taiwan. With a low budget and to find a place in Paragon, it was a feat.

We planned to go to Marina Sq initially but I complained about the double ERP I had to pay, plus TC was coming down from the north and Orchard seems nearer. AA initially sms-ed to me that he’s going to go off from office soon. Then at 5.45pm, he was still in office Paragon having a meeting. Whatever happened to the ‘Going off soon, nothing to liao’ message at 5.17pm?

And so in consideration of the ‘convalescent’, we finally decided at Paragon. I dropped by T&C to polish the necklace coz it looks slightly tarnished and all she did was to wipe with the cloth when I thought the dullness was due to accident spraying of the perfume to it. Chey~

Had dinner at Bakerzin. I was surprised at how we were served tonite. At one moment of time, we practically find no wait staff outside and inside Bakerzin (I duno if they all went to the kitchen I can’t see that deep in) and I was like ‘huh’ coz we wanted to have some tabasco and cheese.

Then we asked for the bill at the end of the meal. It came, I gave my card, and while waiting for the bill to sign, another one came with our bill AGAIN.

What ever happened there? Many times I’ve been there their service has been good. Sighz.

We were full, but we went on to Canele. *sinful* Had this ice cream called L’Amour which is actually ‘rose petal ice cream with raspberry swirl, rose meringue and lychee pieces‘. Very nice rosy smell.

TC had the Exotique which is ‘flambéed caramelized banana, chocolate sauce, passionfruit banana sorbet, vanilla tuile and vanilla crème chantilly‘.

AA had this Earl Grey ice cream, which was the best of all. It has the texture of macha ice cream, but the smell of Earl Grey tea. Not too sickly sweet.

Next time I’ll get that. But bear in mind to tell them you want Earl Grey ICE CREAM. Coz they served us Earl Grey tea by mistake. But then, I think we didn’t stress the ice cream too.

Oops.

D24 durian bread

Under the recommendation of SC, I bought this thing from Oishii Bakery today.

The moment I stepped into the bakery at Beauty World Plaza, the smell of durian drifted to me. I look around for it but couldn’t find it, before I find it lying at one corner.

D24 durian bread!

I took a bite, and yes, it’s a huge chunk of real durian meat in there. Creamy, sweet and completely covers the bread coz of its aroma.

My mummy says it’s worth the $1.80 per pc.

Oishii Bakery is also located at West Coast Plaza. I duno where else though, if there are any other more branches.

If you know, pls leave a comment.

Welcome to Taiwan 22 – 27 July 2009 (Day 5 & 6)

On the last day, we planned to go to Yang Ming Shan (阳明山). We took a MRT to where Shilin Nite Market is, then changed to take a bus up the hill.

As usual, the bus ride was horrible. When you take a bus in Taiwan, make sure both your hands are free, coz you really need to use them to hold on to whatever you can hold on to, otherwise you might get flung to somewhere else in the bus.

A lot of elderly people actually like to go to Yang Ming Shan (阳明山), so the whole bus was full of them.

We reached the foot of the mountain. There was a choice to buy a ticket for NT60, which would be cheaper if you want to drop off at 4 or more locations. Otherwise, the MRT card can also be used.

First stop was at Xiao You Keng (小油坑), where it was full of sulphuric hot springs. Very smelly actually. But the bigger spouts are actually man made, with pipes channelling to the opening to create that bigger impact.

We took a rest to grab a bite, before we went off the the other parts of the mountain. We saw the Milky Pond (牛奶湖), which was a pond where the water is milky white. While walking along the tracks, I saw a Golden Retriever with shades, evidently enjoying himself while basking in the sun.

We went to 3 areas of the mountain, before we departed to have some yummy food.

Welcome to Taiwan 22 – 27 July 2009 (Day 4)

Woke up early to catch a train to our destination, Jiu Fen (九份), another one of my favourite. It was a good thing that we went there early, because from noon (it was a Saturday), the crowd starts to jam the small lanes.

After a whoa bus ride up there, we finally reached our destination.

Started to buy some small gifts for people back home. Also bought a dress and loose pants from one of the shops.

Of coz, how can it be complete without food?

Welcome to Taiwan 22-27 July 2009 (Day 1 & 2)

My first trip to Taiwan, and first trip with the whole family.

We reached there afternoon, and had to do some urgent work upon reaching hotel which luckily I’ve got my laptop with me.

There wasn’t much time to do sightseeing, and that we needed to wake up early the next day to go to Ah Li Shan (阿里山), so we just hung around at Sogo and had dinner there, and Zhong Xiao Lu (忠孝路), after buying the train tickets at Taipei Main Station. There was an offer of buy 3 get 1 free, so we took the offer.

Woke up early the next day to catch the 7.30am train to Chia Yi, before meeting the transfer up the hill. It was a good train, and took like 3 1/2 hours before we reach the destination. We took a pee break halfway up, and some scenery photos.

From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Train tix to Chia Yi (嘉仪）
2. Inside the train – not too many people
3. At Zhang Hua （彰化）- almost there!
4 – 9. Tian Chang (天长）Bridge
10. Temple
11. Di Jiu （地久）Bridge high up the mountain
12. Old Train at Ah Li Shan（阿里山）
13. The real train arrives
14. Downhill to more shops
15. Very foggy and drizzling
16. Tie Lu Bian Dan （铁路便当）- food for eating while on the go.
17. We need to find the temple
18. Functioning railway tracks.
19. Found the temple.
20. Plenty of greenery and flora.

Change of plans

Yesterday was supposed to meet AA & JL for dinner, and go for the movie UP in 3D after that with G. Ended up that things changed in the course of the day.

I ended up meeting my diver frens and watched Where Got Ghost.

Finally went to this place called Beach Cabana for dinner. I read about this place where dogs can go but didn’t manage to find out where exactly it is located. And when I realised where it was, I was surprised coz I pass by this place so many times but I didn’t realise that something was there.

It’s actually along the ECP beach, between Long Beach Restaurant and McDees, in front of the carpark C3. Hidden behind leaves and trees. And that’s why I’ve never noticed it.

They were kind to Caramel. On the menu, it costs 80 cents for a glass of water, and $3 for a jug of iced water. So I asked if they were able to serve Caramel water. They came out with a water bowl of iced water for him. No charge.

Food-wise, very nice. I tried the sambal chicken chop, lamb chop and baby ribs. Baby ribs were quite tough at some parts, but surprisingly they fall off the bone very easily. Probably they were grilled, thus the toughness. The sambal chicken chop was same sambal for the stingray. Very nice combination.

My main was the lamb chop. Very nicely done and I didn’t need to have a tug of war with the meat. Nicely grilled and none overdone.

Only thing for all the foods – portions didn’t really manage to fill one up. Even with our side order of chicken wings. Oh, that was fantastic too. Ask Caramel. Hehe.

Towards the end of the meal where we were waiting for our bill to come, some bikini babes came around and apparently they were setting up for some games, to promote SOL beer.  Too bad, we had to rush for the movie.

Overall, the dining experience was pretty good, other than they having the radio broadcast too loud (we told them to turn it down which they did), and it could easily be seen that once the crowd comes in, they do not have ample assistance around to create a good service for the guests. The crowd started coming in only about 10pm and I could see they are starting to weaken in their service.

I might come back again, just to have a place to bring Caramel for dinner and for his ‘freedom’ to exist. Good food but not too value-for-money so it can’t be a regular hangout.

We rushed to Tiong Bahru for the movie. Overall, the movie was not too bad. It consisted of 3 short stories, but I felt the transition to the next story not so smooth. It kinda followed the sequence like the Thai horror movie, 4bia.

Very Singaporean as usual, and many parts were funny coz of the way they speak, basically.

The ‘horror’ bits are created by the sudden loud sounds or sudden scary images that flashed past. Some scenes are basically special effects which doesn’t blend in perfectly, and quite obvious too.

To me, I give it 3.5/5 stars. For the entertainment it managed to give.

I still wanna watch UP.

The intellectual dog alarm, and a visit to a Korean restaurant

The dog is becoming a tad cheeky in the morning. I call him the ‘the alarm clock that cannot be turned off’.

When the alarm goes off and snoozed, he would be the one to whine and whine till someone is up. Can’t even sleep a little while longer.

Then at nite, he gets excited when I get my laptop out. Coz he wants to surf the net too! Kept pressing on the ESC and CAPS button. *slaps forehead*

Just went for dinner with JL at Esplanade, this Korean BBQ restaurant called Jang Shou Korean Charcoal BBQ. Dun get intimidated by the full-of-Korean website. The people working there are perfectly proficient in English too. It was nearly full house, pretty good for a Wed nite. Their next door neighbour had totally no one in there.

We chose the BBQ food coz JL wanted to have the side dishes that comes with it. We ordered the pork belly and chicken, as well as the seafood pancake. It was quite good, as highly recommended by other fooders too, and side dishes were varied. But I am still not used to wrapping the meat and condiments into lettuce leaves, coz they are quite cumbersome to eat. I ended up just picking the food from the grill. Heh.

They will help you to cook the meats and cut it up into smaller pieces, then serve them to you. Quite a thoughtful action. The meat is well marinated and the pork belly was still good to eat though it was there in the grill for some time. I guessed the heat is controlled because the sliced garlic took some time before they burnt.

It came up to nearly $80 for the 2 of us, with free flow of lettuce, and water. And we were quite full.

The waitress told us we are one of the best customers, and that it’s quite good that we can finish all the food. I cannot understand the meaning of her words though.

Does she mean that we are gluttons?