Enjo Party!

*Shinta and I did something very domestic (and probably uncool amongst under 30s?). We hosted an Enjo party...

A WHAT?!?!

Well basically it works like a Tupperware party.
Hosts hold a gathering to "show off" the goods to friends and neighbours, who then become so awed by how much easier their lives would be if they had the items, that they buy lots of products. The key differences were
1) Enjo not Tupperware
2) The Hosts did not own any Enjo products themselves (yet)
3) "Showing off" was done by a professional demo

Basically how this started was that while visiting a friend, we found out that she was using what I called a "magic cloth"... it requires no soap to be used while washing oily greasy plates. We didn't believe the plates would be sufficiently clean at first, and insisted on testing it ourselves. It was only when we managed to easily produce the squeaky clean sound that we were finally convinced of its effectiveness.

So we did what our generation always does and googled for the Enjo contact, arranged for a demo to be done at our place (Enjo only sells through "direct marketing"), and invited a few friends over. I must admit we had an ulterior motive, secretly hoping our house would be cleaned in the process of the demo...

Well as the 1hour presentation/demo came to a close, all of us ended up placing orders for various products in the different Enjo ranges. Since *Shinta and I don't normally clean the place ourselves, we decided to stick to the kitchen related items, which we would use more of. It should be interesting testing them out once the goods arrive!

48 red roses!

My vote is for sale...

So I was innocently having a coffee at Toast Box with a friend, when this young lady approached us and asked if we could help them with a survey. Spying a stack of vouchers in her hand, we decided to let her talk more about it rather than just waving her away.

Turns out that in conjunection with Toast Box running for the Singapore Promising Brand Award, they are conducting a survey and asking customers to vote for them in exchange for a nice free coffee/tea voucher. When we asked if we could just get the voucher for just doing the survey, she looked a little paiseh when she explained that she would have to walk us through the voting procedure on our handphones and only then we could get the voucher.

So basically it comes down to 20 cents SMS for a $1.50 drink.

I have mixed feelings on this. On one hand they're effectively bribing us for our vote (something the lady couldn't deny when we pointed it out). On the other hand, they're taking the initiative to garner votes in a way that promotes their products.

Hm.. time to find out who else is running and see if they will "bribe" me to vote for them as well...

Supper

1.30am, Saturday morning
Newton Hawker Center
Supper with friends
- BBQ stingray
(1 large to share)
- BBQ chicken wings
(1 each)
- Oyster Omelette
(1 large to share)
- Small squid
(1 large plate to share)
- Beer (640ml each)

3.00am, Saturday morning
Totally knocked out (thanks to the beer!)

Spotted! #7

Ok ok, I do feel a little mean for posting this...

...but I was just speechless when I saw this tall and actually not too bad looking guy with brown hair wearing a ROYAL PURPLE JUMPSUIT (yes, a one-piece jumpsuit) and holding an LV handbag on the bus.


Look at his nice legs!
And YES, I am sure it was a guy!

It's been a year...

Happy birthday to my blog!

Food Bytes: Special Occasions (Morton's the Steakhouse)

Had a special birthday occasion to celebrate, so I made reservations at Mortons. The last time I was there was before the mad cow disease and the subsequent ban on US beef, so you can imagine how long ago that was.

Telling them in advance that we were there to celebrate a birthday paid off. They had prepared a special table for us, decorated with shiny bits...

... and a customised menu. Little touches like that probably don't cost very much, but definitely help make the occasion more memorable.

After we had sat down and made ourselves comfortable they gave us their usual presentation of the menu with the various cuts of meat, selection of veggies and seafood. This practice is not really uncommon, but personally I must say I'm not that keen to see cuts of raw food, or a live lobster waving its claws at me just prior to getting slaughtered.

Mortons is famous for its beef, and they do pretty large cuts of it. The waiter was not pushy about whether we ordered 2 mains or shared 1, although he did gently remind us that they would be happy to help us wrap up leftovers to take home. We noticed with amusement that they had renamed their "ladies cut" as a "slightly smaller steak". Probably to make the guys feel better about ordering it?

The famous Mortons Onion Bread...

*Shinta ordered "shrimp" as his appetiser, so I was imagining some really small pale looking prawns and was really surprised when the waiter appeared with 3 huge grilled prawns cooked with butter. As you can probably guess, I stole some!

My oysters were fresh and juicy. I'm not a fan of the large fat ones (bit gross for me), so these medium sized ones suited me just fine.

*Shinta's medium Porterhouse steak...

My "slightly smaller" New York Strip...

Done medium rare just the way I like it!

We also ordered a side dish of sauteed buttom mushrooms to share. Really liked it a lot despite the fact that we were so full.

Dessert was the "Morton's Legendary Hot Chocolate Cake" which came complete with a candle and waiters gathering around to sing Happy Birthday with great gusto. The staff also took our photo and presented us with it in a signed card from them. During the course of our 2hour dinner there, we heard the birthday song sung no less than 5 times. According to the waiter, apparently up to 10 times a night is "normal"!

The chocolate cake was liquid on the inside. This was the slightly sweeter version, less rich and easier to finish than my favorite one at Pump Room.

At the end of dinner, we departed happy, and like most others, holding a take away bag.

The cold steak and mushrooms were still excellent the next day. Mortons is probably not as accessible a restaurant to most since they specialise in steak, but for those who do like beef, its great to pay them a visit every now and then. If only we could afford to go more often!

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Morton's the Steakhouse
Mandarin Oriental, 4th Storey, 5 Raffles Avenue, Marina Square
Tel: +65 6339 3740
Hours: 5.30pm to 11.00pm(Mon to Sat), 5.00pm to 10.00pm (Sun)
http://www.mortons.com/singapore//
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