Out for Dim Sum

Over the weekend KL and I decided to head out for some dim sum at the much hyped Capital Seafood in Irvine. It was great to sit down and have a nice lunch with KL, something that we haven't been doing since I was crazy busy with school and him with work. The service at Capital was great; unfortunately I can't say the same about the food. I was expecting to get my socks knocked off given all the great reviews online, but the food was just....okay :/

And looking at the food pictures, I think one of the first things I want to get when I start working again is a D-SLR. I love my point-and-click Lumix, but I think SLR pictures seem so much "warmer".

It was a gray and overcast day, unusual weather for this time of the year in California, but it was a great chance for me to break out my oversized Ozetta warmer and relish the last remnants of the chilly winter weather.

Wearing oversized leopard jumper from ShopNastyGal, Ozetta warmer, black Balenciaga clutch, Forever21 leggings and Ann Demeulemeester shoes

The Singapore Report - Food pictures galore and my very first giveaway

Hello everyone!

I have been absent from my blog for quite sometime but I am so deliriously happy to be back in Singapore. It's damn good to be home! I had forgotten about the heat and how densely packed this little island can be, but nothing beats eating Mum's cooking after being away from home for nearly 2 years as well as being in the company of my family again! The highlight has got to be meeting my baby nephew Tristan for the first time, I am constantly amazed by how cute and smart he is, he has everyone in the family eating out of his hands.

To share some of the joy, I am pleased to announce this blog's very first giveaway together with Chickdowntown.com. Some of you might have read about this website before from other previous blog giveaways and Chickdowntown is known for stocking trendy items such as the coveted scarves from Sir Alistair Rai and BB Dakota Clothing. I will pick one reader's comment on this post as the winner and this person stands to get the BB Dakota Battalion jacket in black:

Credit

I love the gold braided details and marching-band vibe of this jacket! It can be worn over pants or dresses and would be a fun signature piece to have for Fall. I am sorry to announce that this giveaway is only limited to readers in the US however :( Check out Chickdowntown's Twitter page as well as their Facebook page to be kept up to date on their latest finds and promotions!
This contest is open till Saturday, 1st August 2009, midnight PST and all US-based comments up to this deadline will be considered.

Now to offer everyone a peek into a day of my life when I am in Singapore, these are photos from when I was out for lunch together with my sister. We choose to hang out at Orchard Road, which is a well-known shopping belt in Singapore. Lunch was at Sakae Sushi, which is a successful Singaporean conveyor-belt sushi franchise store that has taken off in Asia.

We picked the branch at Wheelock Place which is located at the start of Orchard Road. To me, Wheelock Place unofficially marks the start of Orchard Road and we fueled up for the day as we attempted to tackle the shops and malls ahead of us:

Potato croquette and agedashi tofu - deep fried and so unhealthy but I love it! I tell myself that anything tofu can't be thaaaaaat bad!

Octopus sushi - this was my first time trying it..apparently my sister is a fan. I am very partial to seafood and I enjoyed this one immensely. It really tastes better than it looks! ;)

Salmon sashimi and soft-shell crab handroll - perennial favourites, give me wasabi and I am a happy camper. And why can't all crab shells be soft? One thing I hate about eating crab is having to crack open its shell, so the soft shell crab suits my lazy self just fine!

Chawanmushi - a steamed egg dish flavored with toppings like mushroom and fish cake. It's comfort food, done Japanese style, to me.

After lunch, it was off to do a bit of shopping!

This picture shows the start of Orchard Road itself. The building in the picture on the right is ION Orchard, which just opened last week. I haven't been there to check out the place yet, but I guess it will host the usual mix of designer boutiques and mid-range brands that Orchard Road malls is known for, despite its hype :S

Stopped by Topshop and M)phosis, which is a chain of clothing stores in Singapore.

For those who are visiting Singapore, I urge you to check M)phosis out, it stocks interesting, asymmetrical drapey pieces in a limited colour palette consisting of black, white, pink, grey and yellow. The prices are reasonable and I always pick up a few pieces whenever I visit. Not this time though, as I am on a student's budget ;) Topshop didn't yield anything interesting for me too, I'm not sure if that's due to my mentality of a self-imposed shopping ban or just that there aren't anything interesting in the stores lately.

But we did stumble across a food festival when we were at Ngee Ann City (a shopping mall in Orchard Road).

This mall frequently holds events in its atrium and I guess we were lucky that it was a food festival that day! (Translation: lots of yummy sampling and delightful sights and smells to be had!)

Cute Japanese candy in all their colourful packaging:

The selection was mind-boggling especially since I had to make-do with the limited selection in US!

Hong Kong street food!

Food on a stick is just great for walking around and eating..some of the food sold included pig intestines, cow's stomach, pig's skin and the usual fried chicken, fishballs and cuttlefish balls. The pastry counter on the right had me salivating, I have such a soft spot for Cantonese pastries.. it was a visual feast!

A dorayaki machine in action:

Dorayaki is a type of Japanese pancake with a sweet red bean filling in the middle. I love to eat it with a cup of strong green tea, because the taste of tea balances the sweetness of the red bean paste. But I didn't get any that day because of.....

ICE CREAM!

Straight from Singapore's very own ice-cream factory, Udders. There are a host of weird and wonderful flavours at the stall. Wonderful because they have decadent toe-curling liqueur flavors like orange-choc bitters, amaretto black and lychee martini! Weird (to some) because they also carry local flavors such as durians (Mao Shan Wang and D24) and cempedak which I found to be the highlights of their ice-cream selection. Personally, I loved loved loved the Mao Shan Wang（貓山王）flavour, so much so that my sis and I purchased a tub home after sampling what Udders had to offer:

Mao Shan Wang is considered an extremely high-quality durian cultivar in South East Asia. I realize that durians can be a controversial fruit to some. Some people love it, while some people just hate it with a passion. Me? I belong in the first group! Hey, I grew up in Singapore and I can never understand Singaporeans who do not love durians. That's like a Frenchman who doesn't love cheese!

Check out the creamy, luscious scoops of yellow goodness:

Last spoonful, good to the very last aromatic mouthful:

The taste is hard to pin down in words, but it's wonderfully complex with layers of sweetness, creaminess combined with the milkiness of ice-cream. For any adventurous foodie who happens to be in Singapore, this ice-cream is a must-try. Heck, for those who truly dare, go for the actual fruit itself!

P.S. I will be replying to all my emails and comments shortly! Sorry for the delay, but I guess you can say that I was in a food coma! ;)

Things that make me happy

1. TGIF

2. These Zara Balmain knock-offs:

I finally got them after stalking the Zara store in South Coast Plaza for the past 3 weeks! And while the magpie in me admires the original ones on the runway, I feel that my money would be better spent on a certain pair of lace-up boots by a certain female Belgian designer ;)
So this inspired version will do nicely..and honestly this pair of shoes is really well-made and I can't stop fingering the studs and sparkles. Can't wait to wear this out with something white, grey or nude...or maybe all of the above ;)

Edited to add: I've received quite a few queries about these Zara heels, so this is what I know.
They retail for USD$169, not inclusive of sales tax. The article number for this design is 1369201040, so it's worth a shot calling your nearest Zara and quote this number to see if they have this pair and your size, in stock. Lastly, for anyone in the Orange County area, there were still 2 pairs left in a size 39, at the Zara in South Coast Plaza as of Friday, February 27th. Good luck!

3. Cooking carrot cake
No, not the sweet carrot cake that most of the world knows as a dessert.

I'm referring to the Singaporean version, which is a savory dish known as fried carrot cake or colloquially referred to as "Chai tow kway"(菜头粿). Its main ingredient is flour and radish, which is combined together and steamed to create the cake. The steamed carrot cake is served in dim sum in huge slabs, but in Singapore, we stir fry it together with eggs, sweet dark sauce, chilli sauce and pickled radish to make fried carrot cake!

KL and I discovered that the secret to getting the authentic Singaporean taste really laid in getting the right sweet dark sauce and chilli sauce. For the dark sauce, we used kecap manis, which we finally located in an Asian supermarket. As for the chilli sauce, we combined 2 types of sambal (spicy shrimp paste) sauce, one for the heat, one for the garlicky flavour.

This is my favourite breakfast dish (KL's too in fact!) and we are just darn proud of ourselves for being able to recreate it in the US! ;)