lelong lelong

its been awhile since i joined a flea. got an email from underground movement. buzzed my partner in crime - abh. and we are in (did i mentioned we have a rookie - hini - joining us too!). its happening this sat from 12-5pm at de armenian street carpark aka peranakan museum. i love that museum - nice and colorful. we are stall #18!!!!

ohhh de flea is done in conjunction w big eat out. so be prepared to fill your tummy w lovely local fare. AND. most importantly you get to enter de museum at a super reduced rate!

so look forward to seeing you all!

i heart junk food

despite that i was still recovering from a cough, i miss my junk food. i miss superdog chilli fries. junk food rocks!! (and bless peacy who went w me to superdog).

greengrocer - part two

so where was i?? ohhh ya after sales service. errr terrible!!

last last friday, abt 5plus i got a phonecall - "errrmmm mandy ng. i am from green grocer and i am outside your house." no emails telling me when and what time de stuff will come. and suddenly i got a phonecall that de things have arrived. good thing my dad was around.

i rush home to check out de loots. three big boxes. i am like a kid on a christmas day, opening up all de boxes. i am definitely excited to see de seafood and stuff. they were all neatly packed with plastic and so on. and yet at the same time, i am loathin de way how everything is packed. its wasteful!! six items packed in three boxes is just ridiculous. and de big plastic bag used for mince. arghhhh.

mdm tan came back shortly and started examining de loots. as she was cutting up de cod, she was asking me how i came abt the site and so on. after my storytelling section, she immediately went ... "girl ah, please tell them de fish not fresh. and de mince so dark. not good". mdm tan is queen of freshness. this is de woman who will go to de market three times a week to ensure her children and grandkids get to eat de good stuff.

for me, i am simple. as long as can eat, taste good ... its good. i immediately cook de salmon, prawn and scallop that i got. how you may ask?? simple. jus butter. yup. pure butter. no salt. no pepper. de salmon was fantastic. it jus melt in my mouth. as for the scallop and prawn, its so-so. most probably coz they are frozen.

for the next few days, de ng family enjoy many meals of seafood and mince. grandma loving everything. so did de rest.

in short, i dun doubt the quality of food at greengrocer (if not, mdm tan will let de rest of family eat them). however there are so many rooms for improvement.

firstly, the packaging. got to stop being so frivolous. three boxes!! my heart still hurt. it has been 2 weeks, it still hurt.

de delivery date and time. i do not know who is green grocer target audience. as long as working crowd is their target, they ought to do something abt the delivery. remember people knock off after 6pm not 5pm or 4pm. its 6pm. and dun expect everyone has someone at home waiting for de loots.

as mentioned previous, got to to have friendly payment gateway. online = convenient and friendly. so be friendly.

lynda shared w me her online grocery shoppin experience in chicago - peapod. when you shop online at peapod, they would allow you to choose the date and time you would like the item to be delivered to you - a two-hour window. reasonable. in addition, once de delivery person is at your place, they would unload de items and take away boxes that was used to contain your purchase. de boxes will either be re-used or re-cycled. no more sudden heart attack. muhahahhaha.

i am definitely thrilled abt de possible produce i could get my hands on via greengrocer. however till i see much improvements, i doubt i would drop by often.

www.greengrocer.com.sg - part one

i adore online shopping. actually i love online shopping - supplies, bags, books and so on. its fast, easy and convenient. and i have made lotsa fren on de world wide web too.

thus i was absolutely thrilled when i was given a chance to try out a new service - http://www.greengrocer.com.sg/ - where one can purchase fine food and get them deliver to his/her home.

de selection on the site is pretty good. from meat to seafood (you can get waygu beef!!), fresh herbs to truffle oil ... ingredients and condiments that you might need in your cookout, you could possibly find it in greengrocer. furthermore, greengrocer states where they get their produces; weight and size are also shown on de site.

with S$150 to spend, it was rather difficult to figure what to buy. after a quick discussion w mdm tan (aka my mother), we settled for seafood (scallops, prawns, salmon and cod fish) and minced pork (for my grandma; wanted to get her the weight watcher lean but it was not stated if its pork or beef ... so i got to give it a miss).

its rather understandable that some of the items were not available (seasonal or due to lack of quality produce). de site itself was easy to navigate (even though i am still tryin to figure out why salmon yakitori is at the meat section ... ) - all you need to do is enter the qty you needed and voila.

however the checkout is a NIGHTMARE!! if you are jus paying without using any vouchers or redemption of pts, its fine. all you need to do is ensure you have a paypal account and you are good to go.

since i have vouchers to be redeemed, i thought i would do so at the checkout. NOOOOooo it did not work that way at all. when i was at paypal, ready to pay up, there is a section where i can enter any redemption codes and so on (in paypal site). i assume i was to redeem my vouchers there. after several tries, i realised i could have been mistaken. thus i went back to the site to take a look. via de online faq, i then found out that i am supposed to enter the voucher code at "my account".

to add to my pain, beside entering the voucher serial number, i have to login the friggin long passcode (which is made up of letters and numbers) too. i have three vouchers to enter!!

i dun get it. i have been shopping online for years. its de first time ever i have to redeem vouchers via "my account". to me, "my account" is meant to track your orders, update profiles, redemption history and so on. its not abt redemption of vouchers. this shld be done at the checkout. logically. go cashier ... show discount card/ voucher ... pay final total!

as i finally ready to pay, i realised i do not know when the items will be delivered to me. apparently, there is a designated date and time where they will send the items to me. and a note will be given if i am not around. however i wonder if i am allowed to choose a designated time instead. in this case de delivery guy will not face an empty house and i could get my fresh produces de day i need it. anyway i believe i will get a notification email soon. i think.

i lovin de idea of purchasing quality produces online. i mean restaurant quality goods. however i am definitely loathing de checkout (de only good thing - greengrocer uses paypal). i do not know abt the rest of de online shoppers. checkout to me must be fast and furious. you done your shopping, you just want to quickly pay up and get your stuff asap. and get the adrenaline going. any hint of difficulties will just kill away de excitement.

so now i jus hope de follow-up service is good. more reviews later ...

something about de stomach

its unbelievable. i CANNOT digest mee rebus. for de past couple of weeks, my dad bought me mee rebus for brekkie.

and when i went for my run (on mee rebus brekkie days), i could feel de noodle and gravy swimming in my stomach. i would be burping out de flavour out (yucks).

gosh. i cannot digest mee rebus. i cannot digest yellow noodles. sigh

peanut butter cookies

it has been awhile since i baked. wanted to make good old banana chocolate muffin. however was inspired by my recently acquired reese peanut butter cups, i decided to go ahead and bake some peanut butter cookies.

de recipe is from the magnolia bakery. despite being in ny before, i never tried de treats there. i always think they are famous for their cupcakes, which are not my cup of tea. i never can comprehend de need for de cream.

anyhow de cookies turned out lovely (fine. i burned 2 batches of cookies). its easy to make. friends love it.

gosh i really need to bake more often.

reason why i dun eat pork

i love chubby hubby but i absolutely HATE this post!!!

back from bangkok

yes i am back. its a hectic four days three nights. our schedule was v v tight. hahahhaa. so tight we decided to cancel our massage.

what scare me and my fren kat de most was de hotel. de hotel was abit too cheap. so cheap its frightening. its at least 1000 baht cheaper than most hotels in bkk. imagine our relieved faces when we saw our hotel was decent. nice beds. even got free mineral water!! next time, you wanna go bkk, book ibis siam. only 850 baht!!!!!!

we ate lotsa steamboat. do check out the sushi and steamboat buffet at centralworld. cheap and good. and their ice green tea is v yummy. hhahahaa. we have a bit of everything. lotsa shopping in de mall means we were not sticky and yucky. hahahah.

our highlight was definitely when we scored free jap melon (which costs S$30 per slice) at tsu-nami at jw marriot. we were waiting for one of the dishes we ordered. we got quite full and decided to cancel it. think de kitchen forgot and they tot we were pissed and offered us fruit platter. i seriously tot they will give us papaya/watermelon. they presented us w 600 baht melon!!! kat who is not a fan of fruits, ate everything up. sweeet.

of course how can any trip to bkk without dropping by chatuchak! as usual its hot and a sauna there. we stopped twice for drinks.

all in all de trip was good. it was pure shopping and eating. fat fat now!!

dead beat

i am so tired.

communicasia is here!! i have to help out at a client booth for de first day. gosh so much goin on. have to ensure everythin is ok. de talents are movin. make sure de girls at de counter know what to do ... blah blah blah. small talk w their customers. tryin my best to be a social butterfly.

to add to my tiredness, i chatted w pm till 3am the night before and woke up at 6am. hahahhaha.

i was so tired that after dinner (which btw is my first proper meal), i collapse on my bed and fell asleep (and i did not shower at all)!!

i am dead beat!

p/s: its bak cheng time. my mama made these non-pork BC for me. its all mine!!

dreams of flights

many moons and suns back, xl, di and i attended de opening act of singapore art festival - dreams of flight - at de padang.

was quite amazed so many people turned. of course it helped when de show is free, some stuns publicised on tv and FIREWORKS!!

de show was great and v entertaining. de fireworks came at de end of the show. was kinda weird ... when we were busy watching fireworks, de poor dudes and babes were still hanging in de air.

after de show, we trotted our way to clarke quay coffeeclub for dinner and dessert. i was tryin to be different and ordered a mushroom lasagne instead of my usual garlic prawn pasta. the lasagne was okay. maybe i was too full from de snack i had earlier.

dessert was good old muddy mud pie which i dun particularly like. moi never a fan of coffee flavoured ice cream.

good show good food and great company made me a happy girl. hehehehe :)

chocolate wassant

i love these little buggers. they are oh so delicious. they are so popular - they get snapped up by lunch time.

i had an early lunch at provence (holland v) and was about to pay for my sandwich, saw these chocolate wassants. i remembered lovin them, tot i grabbed them on my way out. thank god i did not do that. and i glad i grabbed two packs.

while i was eating my sandwich, truck loads of people came and started grabbing these buggers by packs. at that moment, i was so happy that i have mine safely kept in my bag.

i love you chocolate wassant!!

crabby night

quite a while back, i invited myself to a crabby night w some of my ex-colleagues. am i glad to see them??!! esp lulu. de moment i saw her, i gave her the biggest heartest hug. i miss her!! de crabby night took place at ang mo kio ave 3, melben. despite that we have made a reservation, we needed to wait for awhile for our table. and we have to wait for de crabs too - 2 hours!!
all i can say is its worth de wait. the crab bee hoon soup was delicious. the butter crabs are to die for. de rest of the dishes that tide our hunger were so-so. but one dish did stand out - playboy chicken - chinese name "feng liu ji". despite its ridiculously funny name, it actually tasted quite good (good job lulu - she ordered de dish).
i love my ex-colleagues. jokin w them - kris permed fringe and her becoming of an aunty, anna kaya toast, lulu failing memories.

i had a great time. de only regret - not eating the last shell of roe. tsk tsk.

wholegrain bakin

it started w banana chocolate chip muffins. now i am fixated in bakin w wholegrain.

many moons ago, i was lookin for new treats to bake in my good old king arthur flour all-purpose bakebook (can i say i love this bakebook to death?? its simple and homey. sometimes, martha can be too fancy for my taste). i tot i would make something that is different (beside cranberry and walnut). why not banana chocolate chip muffin (fine there is walnut inside but its optional)??

the recipe also called for whole wheat flour (aka wholemeal flour). hmmmm i have never worked w wholemeal before. and seriously wonder how will it affect de taste.

may i say its YUMMY and HEALTHY!! its does not have de usual wholemeal taste (think dry and grainy wholemeal bread). its moist, not too sweet and yet crunchy (when hot).

thus when borders offered de generous 30% off coupon via the straits times, i dashed off and hoping i could grab hold of king arthur flour wholegrain bakin book (second option was de cookie companion). i was so happy. borders got de book!!

i grab hold of de book, checking. check if there is any duplication of recipes w my all-purpose. DUN HAVE!! hehehehehe *grin grin*. de people at king arthur flour are good. i seriously love them. all their books contained v little pictures. but who cares!! there is always a little story behind each recipe. so homey!! so honest. so comforting too.

i went off to vivo today to get some good whole wheat pastry flour. i bear little hope of gettin some. seriously. who on de earth would wanna buy whole wheat pastry flour?? guess what?? de naturally marketplace (owned by cold storage) got leh!! they have a good selection of bob's red mill flour. gosh de collection is enormous. i xiao lu luan chuan man. in de end, i took 2 packs of whole wheat pastry flour and 1 pack of yellow cornmeal.

and tomorrow, i will be makin honey and corn muffin. hehehhee i am damn excited.

quentin

organised a post-hini-birthday get-together. selected quentin as read de review at chubby hubby. seems like a nice place to go. plus i have not try eurasian food before.

de place was pretty quiet for a sat nite. thus food came up pretty fast. we ordered a spread of yummy stuff. de devil curry was a killer - hot to de max!! i love de eggplant too. but my fav dish was definitely de meaty cutlet - corned beef and potatoes - its screaming comfort food!! ohh did i mentioned its fried!!

after dinner, we headed off to siglap for drinks and chat. gossip, catch-up.

gosh i love catching up w frens!! i miss them so much!!

angsty bread for angsty souls??

due to de store, its been awhile since i baked anythin for de people in de office. as most of us are in friggin holiday moods and angsty, i decided to bake good old comfy cranberry orange nut bread.

however de process of making this bread was torturous. de MPs were holding some CNY celebration dinner jus down my place - they were singing. chinese songs ... hokkien songs too!! it was terrible!! was so bad that i called pm to let him listen. i jus wanna get out of kitchen asap - thus i jus quickly add in de flour, baking powder ... in super speed stirring de mixture. de result - de bread turned out bigger than usual. and too much walnuts. and no much orange taste.

despite this, de bread was still finished up by de folks in de office. angsty bread for angsty souls??

wacha

spent my valentine day at a tranquil little japanese restaurant - wacha. i read abt this place via chubby hubby and was immediately drawn by de dishes, ambience of de place.
since fish was keen on a "powerpuff" reunion, i recommended de place to her. of course, she was dying to try de place too :)

once i reached de place, its like someone home, so quiet. de waiters were so gentle when they talked to you. gosh no way in hell i can make much noise.

we ordered de set dinner as per recommendation. every dish was a delight. my favourite got to be the last dish - japanese fried rice. its crunchy and as you bite, subtle flavour started to ooze out. yummy!!

de company was good. de food was great. wacha is definitely de place that i will come again for some good alone time :)

samar

discovered samar (arab street) via bunny. its an arabic restaurant with great food at decent prices. of course de cute waiters help too :)

i always ordered their set lunch which is of great value. de portion is huge ... great for time when you are super hungry. i love de bread and dips. de bread is freshly made and de dips are so YUMMY!!

try it ... its good!!