Mid-Hol Report Card (2008)

# of calendar days not working: 6 / 6 (good)
# of leave days taken: 2 (good)
# of parties attended: 2 (average), of which...
# of parties hosted: 1 (average)
# of "good" meals eaten excluding parties: 4 (good)
# of hours of sleep: 60-70 (average)
# of episodes of anime watched: 36 (good)
# of massages / general pampering: 2 (good)

Comments: Still has areas for improvement, but good performance overall. Keep it up!

Food Bytes: Good things come in small packages (Bistro Petit Salut)

On Monday, we decided to try check out Bistro Petit Salut again during lunch time, and surprise surprise it was finally open! We tried to escape the sun by retreating into the cool wooden interior, but hurriedly got up and moved outside when a large family including little children came in and sat next to us.

We decided to go for the set menu, *Shinta chose the executive set @$35+++ while I went for the "normal" set lunch @ $25+++. I think I got a much better deal though, because there was a wider range of items on the normal set lunch, and it included what is probably the usual favourites of the restaurant.

*Shinta picked the compression of beef terrine as the starter. It looks good but didn't taste particularly impressive to me. There were suppose to be truffles, but they were hardly identifiable as little black specks, and there wasn't any of the proper truffle flavour at all.

The main of braised pork with lentils tasted too much like Chinese cooking for me, and I hate lentils anyway.

I was much happier with my own choice of escargots. They were nice and warm, covered in garlic and olive oil, and hidden underneath were pieces of cherry tomato. I used the bread provided to soup up the garlic-oil mixture. Was a little surprised that they came de-shelled already though.

For my main, I had the onglet (medium rare) steak. Not many people are familiar with the onglet cut which is better known in Europe than the US. Its the part near the diaphragm and is typically about 500g uncooked. This part can be a little tough if not cooked properly, and unfortunately the outer layer of my steak was seared a little too much, making it tough and chewy. The fries were nicely done, hot and crispy.

For dessert, I had the vanilla souffle. Isn't it really pretty like a mushroom cloud? *Shinta's set came with the more boring but nicely done creme brulee.

Can't help but compare between our previous Italian lunch at Da Paolo the day before, and the French lunch at Bistro Petit Salut. *Shinta and I both pick Da Paolo as our preferred place, for the freshness and quality of the meal. I do think the Bistro gives a really good value for money deal. Besides, it is meant to be the more casual cousin of Au Petit Salut.


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Bistro Petit Salut
#01-54, 44 Jalan Merah Saga, Chip Bee Gardens, S(278116)
Tel: 64749788
Hours: Mon-Sat 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm
Website: http://www.aupetitsalut.com
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Food Bytes: Eating in or out? (Da Paolo)

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and we were in search of food. Getting a little tired of Dempsey, so we headed to Chip Bee Gardens at Holland Village. Intended to go to Bistro Petit Salut, but to our horror, we found that it was like Au Petit Salut at Dempsey... closed at the strangest of times.



So instead we settled at Da Paolo which was just next door. We had never eaten at the restaurant itself, even though we're a frequent customer of the Da Paolo Gastronomia at GWC. (love the salmon and beef lasagnas, beef stew, tiramisu, flourless chocolate cake...)

I settled on 2 starters. The first was parma ham with melon. The ham was pretty good, fresh and not too dry or stringy, and nicely complemented by the melon slices. Couldn't help but compare it to what I had at Culina (Dempsey) however, and I think the parma ham there was slightly better, and the salad they provide rounds it off more completely.

My second starter was the duck liver with apple slices, olives and salad. This made a nice change from the usual crispy bread/ crackers that accompanies duck/ goose liver. The salad was drenched in a little too much oil to be considered healthy, but it tasted good. The little slices of duck liver were nicely pan-fried. They were a little thin, resulting in the center being a little more cooked than how I usually prefer it. But on the whole, I would probably order this again. The portion size was just nice for me as a main, and would definitely have been too large for a starter.

*Shinta had the bruschetta with half tomato and half mushroom. I wasn't too impressed with the mushroom pieces, the flavour wasn't intense enough. The tomato however was nicely flavoured with garlic and olive oil on top of the hot bread which was soft inside and crispy at the crust. Yum.

For the main, *Shinta had the pasta of the day. Alternating thick flat layers of egg and spinach pasta with cubes of beef, tomato and.... fried cheese??? I can't really remember the rest of the dish, but loved the fried cheese!

We decided to share a Zabaliogne dessert cos its not available at the Gastronomia shop. Whipped egg yolks with Masala. Usually I don't like stuff with lots of air in it (think: foam milk, champagne, carbonated drinks), but this one was pretty fun to eat by dipping the biscotti in.

Was pretty happy at the end of the meal. There are other dishes on the menu that I would want to try!

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Da Paolo La Terrazza

#01-56, 44 Jalan Merah Saga, Chip Bee Gardens, S(278116)
Tel: 64761332
Hours: Wed-Mon 11.30am-2.30pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm

Website: http://www.dapaolo.com.sg/
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Food Bytes: Update (Kohi Ten)

Following my 3rd visit to this place, I have decided NOT to eat here anymore. The pastas just simply cannot-make-it. I could barely finish my plate of scallop mushroom soup spaghetti.

The final straw however, was this pudding:

To be fair, the waitress did warn me that it was a capsicum pudding, describing it as "not too sweet, not too sour". My advice is to order this ONLY if you are a very very very very very big fan of capsicums. Seriously, it was that bad, and 4 people couldn't finish it.

When we gave feedback to them, the waitress said that surprisingly this was actually quite a popular dessert. With who I really wonder!!!

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Kohi Ten
19 Cuppage Road, Cuppage Terrace,
Tel: 64768083
Hours: Mon-Thu 8.30am-11.30pm, Fri-Sun 9.00am-11.30pm
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Food Bytes: TOW all the photos (House, Camp, Barracks)

We had driven past House, Camp, Barracks a few times before, but never bothered to stop and take a look. The huge building is intimidating, and we couldn't actually figure out where the restaurant was at first, until you walk closer to the edge of the road and see the steps leading down a slope.

I liked the place. It was big and airy, with tables nicely spaced out for privacy. There are 2 private rooms, and unlike private rooms in other restaurants which are usually cramped, no windows and claustrophobic, one of them was even set in the glass patio area, and could very comfortably seat up to 20. Just nice for throwing a party!

Fish and (Truffle) Chips was one of the recommended dishes on the menu. Although the fish looks like hardly anything in the pictures, the 2 pieces of cod were actually a decent size each. The batter was extremely hot and crispy, with the fish slightly oily, soft and very yummy. The fries (or chips) were doused with truffle (olive?) oil giving a nice kick to them. You didn't need to use any of the 3 dips (tatare, salsa and vinegar) provided. *Shinta found it slightly too oily/ heavy. For a "small eater" like me, the Kid's meal at half the price and half the size would have been perfect, but they only allow that for kids or for take away.

Pizzas here are described as having "crusts thin enough to slip under the door". I'm not sure if this description is technically correct, given that it tends to separate into 2 layers with a bubble of air trapped in between. Having said that, its extremely crispy and light, more like eating a thin cracker / crisps rather than the usual doughy bread.

It went pretty well with the mushrooms with truffles. The rocket was extremely fresh and bitter, making me wish I had some parma ham and melon to eat it with. Try to avoid the raw onions though, they're not worth a whole afternoon of feeling uncomfortable.

This mocktail was a waste of time. Longan with red dates. I think the chinese dessert place at Peace Center does it better, for 1/10th the cost.

Dessert was so horribly disappointing. We chose the #3 ranked flourless chocolate cake with honeyed almonds. I can understand the metal mess tin was suppose to be keeping with the theme of Barracks (although I don't see why since all the other food came on very pretty plates!), but still it looked ugly.

The cake was soft and wet, with a cookie dough texture. I've had flourless cakes before, but there was something seriously wrong with this one. The honeyed almonds were nice and crunchy, but nothing to fight over. *Shinta thought the ice-cream was movenpick, until I thought I saw somewhere that it was handmade. Dessert was definitely not worth the calories.

On the whole, we can probably bring friends here, but skip the drinks and dessert. Also, the combination of what we ordered left us a little too "truffled-out" and over-oiled! One last note, bring your namecard here as that will entitle you to a 10% discount.

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House, Barracks Cafe

8D Dempsey Road, S(249672)

Tel: 64766050

Hours: Mon-Fri 11.00am-2.30pm, 2.30pm-6.30pm, 6.00pm-11.15pm,

Sat-Sun 11.00am-4.00pm, 4.00pm-6.00pm, 6.30pm-11.15pm

http://www.dempseyhouse.com/

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Merry Christmas!

I got feedback that my blog had too few photos. *sigh* Taking photos when I am in Singapore does not come naturally to me. Taking photos of my food....? Even worse. Most of the time I am too eager to start eating and by the time I remember, I am already halfway through. Plus if I'm eating with people, I rather not fuss with taking photos and interrupting the mood and conversation...

In an attempt to please my readers however (yes, the both of you), the next post will have more photos. Having said that, please take note that I am grateful that (the both of) you are willing to waste a few minutes of your time each day to read my blog.

Have a Merry Christmas!

The Travel Bug: For everything there is a season...

Why Singapore will never be "enough"

1. I need the 4 seasons to justify a large wardrobe and to be able to wear coats, layers and related accessories

2. I need the mountains and the valleys and all the geographical formations you studied about in school

Food Bytes: Time Out @ Garibaldi

Had a very pleasant lunch today at Garibaldi's. I had arranged to go there with an ex-colleague (I'm the 'ex' not the other person), but the minute I stepped in, I realised I had made a slight mistake and forgotten that the place is pretty popular with my colleagues. One entire corner of the small restaurant had been taken up by them. Luckily I was seated at the other end, and they were probably unable to hear my conversation over the general noise!

I've heard mixed reviews about Garibaldi's. One friend who's then-bf proposed to her there had horror stories about the service. So far I haven't had any problems though. It provides more or less everything that is expected for its price range. One complaint though might be that it tends to get a little noisy when full. Not the best if you're trying to get in some romantic time with your partner.

Anyway the reason the lunch was pleasant, was not just because of the food (which was good), but because of the company and the conversation. We talked about:

1) news at my ex-workplace (gossip + personal financial interest!)

2) my current job (*comments censored*)

3) the general economy (gah....)

4) friends (are wedding bells ringing soon for someone we had almost given up on?)

5) family (the looking after of)

6) growing old (and the responsibilities that come with age)

As a result of the conversation, I'm afraid I didn't even pay much attention to the food.

But I am pleased. Meeting up with an old friend made my day.

P.S. I am guessing about the price. I've never had to pay while eating here! =P

P.P.S. For those wondering why there are so many blog entries today, its because I'm super bored. Thank God that holidays start soon and I can stop pretending to be engaged in meaningful activities!!!

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Garibaldi Italian Restaurant & Bar

#01-02, 36 Purvis Street, S(188613)

Tel: 68371468

Hours: 12.00pm-3.00pm, 6.30pm-11.00pm

http://www.garibaldi.com.sg/

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Analogue or Digital?

Today I received the card that broke the camel's back.

My past years on the sell-side meant that every Christmas/CNY I would have to send out cards to past/present/hopefully future clients. Luckily this was more or less co-ordinated within the department, so all I had to do was lend a signature to the cards already floating around.

Moving to the buy-side, I had the luxury of receiving cards, and not feeling obliged to return them. Don't blame me for being rude, given that I sometimes receive cards from:
1) people I met only once in some "shake-hands" meeting, and I have absolutely no recollection of who they are; and/or
2) people who sign off with an illegible signature and no name card attached.

Today however, I received a card from a fairly senior banker, and since he had the good manners to send me (a comparatively junior person) one, I guess I shall finally have to start sending cards to those whom I can identify.

So the question now is....
1) Should I send a hard-copy card (which is more personal) notwithstanding that it will not arrive in time (which is rude since I obviously didn't bother about it); or
2) Send an e-card which would arrive immediately, but is impersonal and could jolly well have been sent via mass email?

Don't forget the lyrics!!

There's something wrong in having happy upbeat cheery versions of these 2 songs, and playing it right after/before songs like "Here comes Santa Claus" or "Jingle Bells"!

"Do They Know Its Christmas" was written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure specifically to raise funds for the 1984-85 famine in Ethiopia. The group "Band Aid" which released it was a British and Irish charity group formed (and reformed) from the most successful British and Irish pop music performers.

"So This Is Christmas (War is Over)" was a protest song about the Vietnam War by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and The Plastic Ono Band. In 1969, with the US entrenched in the Vietnam War, they rented bilboards and posters around the world with the words "War is over, if you want it".

Source: Wikipedia

Source for photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yokoonoofficial/2892804843/

Do They Know Its Christmas Time

It's Christmas time, there's no need to be afraid
At christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy!
Throw your arms around the world at christmas time

But say a prayer - pray for the other ones
At christmas time, it's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dreaded fear
Where the only water flowing is a bitter sting of tears
And the christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you

And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

Here's to you
Raise your glass for everyone
Here's to them
Underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's christmas time at all?

Feed the world
Let them know its Christmas time

So This Is Christmas (War is over)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

Chorus:
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas (War is over)
For weak and for strong (If you want it)
For rich and the poor ones (War is over)
The world is so wrong (Now)
And so happy Christmas (War is over)
For black and for white (If you want it)
For yellow and red ones (War is over)
Let's stop all the fight (Now)

And so this is Christmas (War is over)
And what have we done (If you want it)
Another year over (War is over)
And a new one just begun (Now)
And so happy Christmas (War is over)
We hope you have fun (If you want it)
The near and the dear one (War is over)
The old and the young (Now)

Chorus

War is over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

Seeing the forest for the trees...

Note: *Shinta only agreed to a tree because I said I would be responsible for taking it down.

Dec 2005: Decided not to get cos away for most of December.

Dec 2006: My first proper tree!!! Went to Concourse and picked out a nice dark green one that was slightly taller than me, and red & silver cheapo-balls.

Feb 2007: Tree still up. Decided to take down the decorations as a start. Thought of hanging red packets on tree to celebrate CNY, but too lazy.

Aug 2007: Tree still up. Placed little red flags to celebrate National Day.

Dec 2007: Time to decorate! Wanted to replace half of decorations with a different colour, but mistook colour scheme (thought it was gold and red), and bought more silver items!!!! Discovered cheapo-balls not usable as glue had turned yellow. Bought a few lovely glass balls (ex!!) from I Wanna Go Home and some silvery/white non-ball decorations (flowers, fake-crystal/glass chains, silver leaves).

Feb 2008: Tree still up. Removed decorations when on MC and bored at home.

Dec 2008: Tree still up. Decided to go for a white/silver look, since non-ball decorations still ok. Added these pretty prisms from I Wanna Go Home to glass collection.

Decided that every year, would buy a few nice ("a few" because nice = expensive) glass items to add on to tree. *Shinta pointed out that if we ever have kids, would have to replace everything with plastic ones........ Conclusion: No kids!!!

Spotted! #2

Spotted: Mysterious box in lowest shelf of fridge
Action: Investigate further

Spotted on closer investigation: Remnants of dead pig with live mould
Action: Scream and run away calling for help

Drink for thought...

Carlsburg: "It doesn't get any better than this"

Really? Then what's the point of anything?
What a depressing motto to live by.

Screenings #2: Now showing at a computer screen near you...

My current list, (in no particular order):

1. Desperate Housewives (Season 5)
2. Grey's Anatomy (Season 5)
3. Heroes (Season 3)
4. Gossip Girl (yes.. seriously) (Season 2)
5. Star Trek The Next Generation (Season 1)
6. Persona Trinity Soul

Recently completed:

1. Star Trek Voyager (all 7 seasons!)
2. El Cazador de la Bruja (passable)
3. D Grey Man (why has it not ended properly??!!)
4. XXXholic Kei (ok.. at least there was a small plot)
5. Sayonara Setsubou Sensei (boring)

Screenings #1: How I survive

In no particular order...

1. Kenshin (not so much the non-manga part tho)
2. Slayers
3. Full Metal Alchemist (they're good looking!)
4. Gundam Seed (The other series were not too bad either)
5. Getbackers (I like the soundtrack)
6. Bleach (a little long though, I've lost track of the later episodes)
7. D Grey Man (pls continue, the story hasn't ended!)
8. Full Metal Panic
9. School Rumble (its hilarious)
10. Kodomo no Omocha
11. Hunter X Hunter
12. Great Teacher Onizuka
13. Prince of Tennis
14. Inuyasha
15. Naruto (like Bleach, a little too long and I've lost track...)

I had to make it a top 15 list rather than top 10...
Million thanks to *Y for supplying me through the years!

We are young only once, after that we need some other excuse - Anon

On Saturday, *Shinta and I went for a Christmas party hosted by some old(er) friends. Despite my initial reluctance (tired lah), I'm really really glad we went after all....

1. We are the "babies" of the group

Being the youngest in a group has its privileges. The others who are walking the path of life ahead of you, can understand and relate to issues that you are only just starting to face. Hence they can sympathise and know how to say the right thing at the right time. They also know how saying less is sometimes saying more!

It sometimes gets awkward amongst friends who despite being the same-age-group ("SAG"), are at different stages of life and can't always relate. It's quite tiring sometimes, to be honest.

2. We were pampered by the spread of food without any work from us!

It's probably related to being the babies of the group, but we didn't have to prepare or bring anything. For most of our other gatherings with SAG friends, either
i) we host, *Shinta has to cook and I have to wash up, or
ii) its a potluck and we still have to prepare something substantial.

This time round however, we got yummy potato mashes, the most amazing pomegranate salad, stuffing, turkey and tons of other stuff without having to do any work. We did attempt to assuage our guilt by bringing 2 bottles of wine though!

3. *Shinta brought his guitar and we sang carols

Yes, singing of carols is not something done only in church or by carollers. And it doesn't matter if we're out of tune or humming in a totally different key. It's the words you read and reflect upon that matter. I had a good time although my throat is now slightly sore.

I think having 3 groups of friends helps a lot...
1) friends your age to walk together with you;
2) friends younger to remind you to leave a path others can follow; and
3) friends older to guide you and let you know there have been others walking before you.

Food Bytes: Of Brussels and Sprouts (Brussel Sprouts)

Have put off blogging about this for a while cos I wasn't too impressed. Visited Brussel Sprouts at Robertson Quay on Saturday for lunch. Despite going to Robertson Quay pretty often, we had often walked past the other restaurants and headed straight for our usual favourites.

This place however, looked pretty popular in the evenings and had awards posted on the walls, so we decided to give it a try.

We ordered the beer-battered onion rings as one of the starters. Nothing spetacular unfortunately =( Somehow it didn't taste like anything to me.

The beef croquette came highly recommended by the waiter. It was not too bad, but again not a show stopper and not something which I would make a special trip to the restaurant to eat.

*Shinta had the steak and fries. Surprisingly, he described it as "one of the better steaks" he had eaten. High praise indeed! It wasn't too bad actually, the outside had a nice smoky grilled flavour.

Last was the speciality of the restaurant.. mussels/clams with free flow of fries. Having eaten pretty unbeatable fresh mussels before (more on that another time), I decided to try the clams rather than set myself up.

The clams were fresh, but surprisingly small. Was pleased that each shell had a clam (except for 2 empty shells, but I later found the clams floating in the soup). The clear tomato based sauce I had chosen was light enough to drink as soup. It would probably have been better to slurp it up with bread. Originally tried to use the fries to soak up the sauce, but the fries were very very disappointing. Suspect they have different people doing the fries, because the first few I stole from *Shinta's steak were crispy on the outside and nice and light on the inside. But the ones that came with my clams were too thick, undercooked and in general just pretty bad.

Those of you who have eaten at the Trailer of Life before, know how difficult it is to get really good fries elsewhere!

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Brussels Sprouts
#01-12, 80 Mohamed Sultan Road, The Pier @ Robertson, S(23901)
Tel: 68874344
Hours: Mon-Thu 5.00pm-12.00am, Fri-Sat 12.00pm-1.00am, Sun 12.00pm-12.00am
http://www.brusselssprouts.com.sg/
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The tree is up! Now for the gifts?

The Christmas tree is up! This year its silvery white

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them - Robert Frost

Reminder to self: Try not to blog about work unless its positive

The problem with work, is that it takes up so much of your time, and so many "interesting things" happen that its tempting to write about it. My theory is that "interesting things" happen at work because we are forced to work with different types of people.

In the social context, if ABC was illogical / stupid / not-my-type etc , you could just choose not to hangout with ABC. Unfortunately, most of the time one can't choose their colleagues. And at work you have to be "professional" and silently shake your head and bottle up your annoyance at whatever idiocy just occurred.

Anyway the reason I can't blog too much detail about work is that too many of you know who I am, and even if you don't, Singapore is a small small small place.

So which "willing person" are you?

Spotted! #1

Spotted: Man crossing major traffic road at 45% angle, walking with his back to traffic and talking on a handphone.

Do people have a death wish? At least don't traumatise the drivers!

Ten things I love about...

Ten Things I Love About Christmas

10. Carollers
9. Christmas lights
8. Office shutdown
7. Putting up decorations on the tree
6. Finding the perfect gift for someone
5. Receiving a carefully selected / handmade gift
4. *Shinta will buy me gifts
3. I have an excuse to buy gifts for myself
2. Using the holiday as an excuse to meet up with friends

Lastly and most importantly...

1. Commemorating God's gift to us, His Son

Ten things I hate about...

Ten Things I Hate About Christmas

10. It starts in November
9. Crowds and long queues everywhere
8. No parking everywhere
7. Kids running around and screaming for things they want
6. The same Christmas songs playing over and over again
5. Restaurants jack up prices and bookings must be confirmed weeks in advance
4. Deadweight loss
3. Lonely people feel even more lonely
2. Guessing who might give me a gift and feeling guilty if I left anyone out

Lastly and most importantly...

1. No one seems to remember or care what Christmas is really about

In the beginning, there was...

... a Homepage?

Hands up those who remember Homepages.

In the days of the early Internet (yes I am old enough to remember that), we had Homepages and not Blogs. There was none of these fancy WYSIWYG software (not free anyway), and we had to painfully code in HTML, make sure our tags were all closed, crossed our fingers, upload the page and hoped it came out ok.

The standard framework for a Homepage was quite simple:

1) Who am I
2) My Family
3) My Good Friends
4) My School
5) My Hobbies
6) My Links

These were the days before digital cameras, so photos were scanned in manually (and in low resolution because digital storage space was expensive).

After a while we got bored because there was nothing else to add, and the culture of frequently updating it with news on our lives (ie blog) didn't exist yet. I don't think there were many anonymous Homepages for that matter.

Anyway, we soon forgot/abandoned our Homepages.

I wonder what has happened to my Homepage now. It's been probably a good 12 years since I last saw it. I don't even have the link for it anymore, much less remember how to log in and update/delete it. The domain name has probably disappeared in the dotcom fallout, or been taken over by some other big name and my account lost because I didn't re-log in.

Or have I under-estimated cyberspace and are the remnants still floating out there somewhere?

Food Bytes: As they say, "third time lucky" (Jones the Grocer)

Today I was feeling very grouchy and sulking away in the car refusing to choose a place to eat, so it was lucky that *Shinta could read my mind and know that the best thing to do was to head straight for Dempsey to cheer me up. There's something about the sight of spaceous white bungalows surrounded by lush greenary that just cheers me up. Lured by the smell of good coffee, my bad mood dissipated once I stepped into Jones.

This was our 3rd attempt at getting a table here. On our previous 2 tries, we had unfortunately arrived after 12.30pm on a weekend, and the place was packed packed packed. Today at barely 11.30am, we even had the luxury of choosing whether to sit inside (air conditioned, wonderful smell of fresh coffee brewing, but shared wooden tables) or outside (breezy view of green trees, nice view of the other white bungalows, blue sky!!! but ants, counter like seats and view slightly obstructed by parked cars barely 1m away). What tipped the scales was the presence of little kids sitting inside and making not-so-little noises. *Shinta and I headed outside right away.

A few weeks ago, we had been eating at Culina just a stone throw away (literally) and was lured into checking out Jones as our next possible hangout. The place is what I would call a high-class bakery / coffee store, filled with tons of baked melt-in-your-mouth delights.



(I had my Canon Ixus with me today, and so was slightly trigger happy)

One of the things I knew I had to order was coffee. It was a pleasant surprise when my milk coffee came with an ice-cream. The sweet milky mixture thankfully didn't drown the rich coffee taste.



When we asked the waitress what she recommended, she didn't even hesitate to suggest the full breakfast. Given that we had also seen (on our previous try-to-get-table-but-got-turned-away visits) many others ordering it, my expectations for this were pretty high. I'm not sure if its just my tastes being slightly different, but it was unfortunately not what I expected.

We would have preferred the tomato to be grilled a little longer and softer. (yes, "we". When it comes to food, we are very very Singaporean in our habits and tend to share meals, especially when we go somewhere new. If its an old favourite however and I know exactly what I want, God forbid if *Shinta tries to touch my food!!!!!) We love runny yolks and hence had ordered the poached eggs. Unfortunately we weren't too fond of the vinegar on it, nor were we fond of the too thick and yucky tasting white. The bread was sourdough (not my fav), and not warm enough for the slab of butter on it to melt right away.



One thing we did like though, was the bacon. Liked it enough to order an extra side portion of it. Look how greedy we were:

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*Shinta: (picks up one piece and pops whole thing into mouth)
Me: Are you not going to cut away the fat bits?
*Shinta: (silence)
Me: Here you go. I'll cut it away for you
*Shinta: (picks up piece and puts it grudgingly into mouth)
*Shinta: (sulky voice) It's not as nice
Me: .......
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Next up was the coconut pancakes with ice-cream and fruit bits. It was pretty good actually, the pancakes were light and fluffy and the coconut wasn't too overpowering. For some strange reason, I can't remember what the fruit bits were. I suspect its because *Shinta ate most of them.

The problem with pancakes and me (actually the problem is probably only with me) is that I love the idea of pancakes, but whenever I order them, I never like them as much as I thought I would. Or as much as they probably deserve to be liked. And I get tired of them after a few mouthfuls.

*Shinta says its because I have been spoilt by McDonalds hot cakes, which are cheap and although tasteless and not very good, very effective in soaking up the sweet sticky syrup which I like. Therefore my mind is wired to think that all pancakes should be sweet and sticky, and serve solely as a conduit to bring the syrup to my mouth. Leading to my inability to appreciate the light fluffy well made ones... Very sad. I am a plebeian

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Jones The Grocer
#01-12, 9 Dempsey Road, Tanglin Village
Tel: 64761512
Hours: 9am-11pm
http://www.jonesthegrocer.com/
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Blue? Grey? Maroon? Bold? Larger? Smaller?

Have spent a good part of the evening trying to customise the colours and fonts on this site. I must say I'm either really blur, or this is just not very user friendly. Why can't I remove the borders around the photos, or at least set it to be a different colour from the dividers? Why can't I adjust the size/colour/font of the post headings independently of the other text? Why do some of my "hard returns" not translate into a "next line" even after I try tweak the html? And why is uploading and arranging the layout of photos such a serious pain?

For someone who used to be very fluent in html, javascript, C++ and Matlab, I should be very very ashamed of myself.

Big Bus & Little Car

1. Big Bus never keeps to its own lane, but slowly creeps over into the adjoining one (even on a straight road), scaring Little Car next to it with its size and speed

-> Stick to your own lane!!!



2. Big Bus thinks it owns the road and forces Little Car to give way by randomly cutting out without any regard for Little Car who is directly next to it

-> Just cos you signalled doesn't mean you can barge out without checking first whether Little Car is alongside, or without letting Little Car pass first!!!!!

3. Big Bus never gives way to Little Car which needs to turn left. This is especially true and problematic when it comes to the Red Big Bus Lanes in the very congested town area.

Poor Little Car needs to turn left. However, because it is scared to death of the Red Big Bus Lane (how much is the fine??!!), Little Car can only cross after the bus stop, when the Red Big Bus Lane becomes a Dotted Red Big Bus Lane.

At the same time, Big Bus travelling along this busy road is going straight and needs to cut to the right, creating crossing lines of traffic. Again, Little Car is forced to give way to Big Bus (cos Big Bus is cutting out without any heed for Little Car).

This creates a situation where:
(i) Little Car is forced to jam break to allow Big Bus to come out creating a jam in the middle lane;

(ii) Little Car cannot cut into the left lane, and that lane is totally ineffective after the bus stop;

(iii) Little Car has trouble turning left and there is effectively only 1 lane for it to go to.

Ok, I don't have a perfect solution for this scenario, but at the very least, Big Bus should give way to Little Car sometimes, or alternate turns to give way so that both lanes can be used. But no... Big Bus hogs the road because it is Big Bus and that is a Big Bus Lane. *sigh*