Singapore: Episode 12

For some reason, all I had today was Italian, except for my breakfast and my afternoon cheese platter.

Lunch:

Very cute cafe/bookshop/music store

Of course I forgot the name of the place but it is right next to the museum.

This is what I ordered:

spaghetti with prawns in olive oil and chili sauce

I wanted to take my parents and sister to the Malaysian restaurant for dinner but when we got there it was already closed, which was a shame because I was really looking forward to it! I will have to take them there for lunch.

We went to an Italian restaurant instead that was just around the corner from the Malaysian one. I had lunch there once before and I knew they had good pizza.

I ordered a pizza and a green salad to share with my sister.

A very satisfying day especially that it ended with chocolate and coffee gelato…

Singapore: Episode 9 (11)

I almost gave up on documenting my trip through food.

I miss home. I miss home-cooked meals. I have breakfast, lunch and dinner and I just feel like I lost my enthusiasm for taking out my camera and snapping pictures.

…. Until today!

This is where we (thats me, my parents and my sister!) went: Eastcoast Seafood Centre

I went there 10 years ago with my family on my first trip to Singapore. It has changed quite a bit but the food is still very fresh and exciting!

It’s a strip of seafood restaurants right on the beach. We picked the largest and busiest one, Jumbo!

This is what we ordered:

For larger view, please click on the image. I didn’t want to upload one by one, I would shoot myself by the time I am done.

After leaving the restaurant, the taxi driver showed us this area, which is very close to our hotel, with a line of food street vendors and it’s open till very late at night!  Can not wait until we explore that street! Very excited!

Singapore: Episode 8

Today was my day off!

Although I woke up 2 hours later than what I had planned for, I still managed to do everything on my list for today. I was quite impressed with myself as I have no sense of time management.

First on my list: museum hopping

I went to the Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore. Both were fantastic but the national museum made me envious, it was so beautiful!

National Museum of Singapore

I went to Little India afterwards to go to this veggie eatery that’s part of an art project.

It’s called Food #03 and it’s part of the PostMuseum project, which the website explains more.

They only served pizzas this week, so I ordered the mixed vegetables one.

It was light and crispy. I quite liked it! It’s also a very relaxed place to just go hang out, read a book or meet up with friends. I would go back if I have an unplanned afternoon.

And then I finally went to Max Brenner. At first, I was disappointed about the size of the place. It was tiny, in comparison to the one in New York and so was their menu but the dessert was still very satisfying.

I had chocolate-filled crepe with caramel sauce, vanilla sauce, bananas and crystallized nuts.

Needless to say, it was yum-mee!

The shop was located at the Esplanade Theatre mall, Singapore’s main theatre, close to the marina bay. Since it was the weekend, they had a band playing outside, just by the bay. It was lovely.

I stayed for a few hours, listening to them play and just enjoying it. At around 9, I decided to head back to the hotel. I had a very long day so I picked up food from the nearby thai restaurant, ThaiExpress.

I was honestly not expecting it to be good but to my surprise, it was! I ordered spicy beans fried in a shrimp paste sauce (left) and seafood pad thai (right).

Back to work tomorrow at the museum…

But on the brighter side, my parents are coming in tomorrow! Now I can’t wait to finally try Singapore’s fine dining restaurants.

Singapore: Episode 7

Today’s choice of food was uninteresting!

I didn’t have breakfast because I forgot to put the alarm and of course overslept. I rushed to the museum and worked half day. After resting a little bit back at the hotel. I got ready and left to go swimsuit shopping. The weather channel website lied to me. It told me that it will be raining every day, all day. It rained twice. First time you can’t even consider it as rain and the second time was today for 5 minutes. It’s usually partly cloudy and hot and humid, perfect weather for pool!

Anyway, I went to a specific mall looking for a specific store, I couldn’t find what I was looking for and then I realized I still haven’t eaten. My options were fine dining restaurants that were actually closed, so not really an option, or a place called The Coffee Club. I see it everywhere!

So Coffee Club it was. I didn’t want to walk more, it was already 3:30pm.

As I was waiting to be seated, I was hoping, for some reason, that they had fish and chips on their menu. Well they did!

It wasn’t so bad, at least it satisfied a craving.

After that I walked a bit and arrived to the hotel exhausted. I was planning on going to Max Brenner and indulge in some chocolate but I just couldn’t. I needed to rest.

I had nothing planned for tonight so I booked a ticket to go see the movie, Brothers. I booked at another cinema complex. The crowd was very different from the one last night. It was much younger and more chaotic, I suppose. Around the complex, I saw at least two musical performances on the street. The entire place was very alive!

I arrived there an hour early so I sat in one of the outdoor cafes.

I ordered a salmon and cream cheese bagel and sat to see the live band performances.

The bagel was the worst I’ve had. It was terrible! I couldn’t even finish it! I stupidly agreed for them to heat it. I thought they were going to toast it but I am pretty sure they just microwaved it, very high and longer than needed. It was hot, doughy and tasteless!

But then I had popcorn at the theatre, so it wasn’t so bad.

Tomorrow is my only day off this week so I have planned a schedule for me, which hopefully will include this place!

We’ll see tomorrow…

Singapore: Episode 6

I went back to that street! I made a note of the street’s name but because I am me, I forgot the name!

We tried the Indian this time.

I placed my order…

White rice with Dhal, accompanied with a cabbage dry curry and eggplant pickle

It was a very good meal. I personally prefer black dhal over the yellow one but it was good nonetheless. Also, the eggplant pickle went perfectly with the the rest of the meal. I still think the Malay one was much, much better and the flavors were much more exciting. This was just average Indian food.

After finishing off from the museum today, I went back to the hotel, searched for a movie and took off! I was quite hungry by the time I arrived to the cinema, which is located at the Cathay Building. I had about an hour to kill so I went over to Caramel and ordered their tonight’s special, cheese soufflé with cream sauce.

Quite a satisfying meal.

I watched Everybody’s Fine. I thought it was going to be a silly, happy movie but I was wrong, VERY wrong. I left sobbing with a heavy weight on my chest. This is not what I wanted! But it is still a very good movie. So if you want to go cry, go see it!

Singapore: Episode 5

Day 5: Started work at the museum after brunch (an egg sandwich from Toast)

After leaving the museum, I went straight to Orchard Road to buy a few things I needed. After doing my shopping at ION Orchard mall, I decided to have dinner at The Marmalade Pantry.

I ordered a spicy tomato sauce with beans

Very comforting after my (beauty products) shopping spree and very delicious!

Then for my main meal, I had grilled to perfection salmon accompanied with a cold noodle salad.

As I was heading to the metro station, conveniently located in that same mall,  I passed by TWG tea salon, which I recognized from the tea bags we get complimentary in the hotel room. They had a display of French pastries, all infused with their tea.

I asked for a box of tea-infused macarons, which I’m currently enjoying with TWG’s jasmine tea.

I can’t wait until my parents get here so I can explore Chinatown, especially that the Chinese New Year is on the way, Arab Street and Little India!

Singapore: Episode 2

Today was my first day of work at the museum! I finally met all those people I’ve been emailing at the museum on a daily basis for the past year! So it was nice to see them in person.

I was still very much jet-lagged and only had a few hours of sleep so I barely concentrated. This is supposed to be a learning experience for me but all I thought about was going to bed!

A few hours into the day, the museum team decided to take a lunch break. They asked me if I had any preference, I said no just that I wanted to try Singaporean food. They took me to this shopping center, mostly electronic stores, just a few minutes walk away from the museum and we had lunch at the food court. See when they first told me food court, I didn’t want to be snobby and say I don’t do food courts, after all this is my first day! Anyway, so this food court turns out to be Asian style. There was a section for Singaporean, Indian, Malay and Japanese food.

I went to the Singaporean noodle section and ordered this…

It was called Seafood Hor Fun. It’s basically a seafood noodle in this very thick sauce. It tasted ok, just very slimy! My colleagues from the museum were talking about their love for MSG and how they put it in everything. That really put me off and I stopped eating the noodle. Yes, yes I’m a food snob! I just don’t like fake food or food courts.

After leaving the museum at the end of the day, the weather was beautiful! The humidity was lower and it was quite breezy.

I wanted to go check out a store (beauty products – another obsession of mine) and possibly find a place to eat around that area. I took the metro and stopped at the closest station to the area I wanted. The weather was still beautiful so it was just lovely to walk around. The crowd was different. It was younger and more trendy and then I saw an Art school and that of course explained everything.

The Cathay building to the left (small local boutiques and cinema complex) and the Art School to the right

Right next to the Cathay building, I saw the cutest cafe, Caramel. I sat outside to do some people watching and read Harper’s Bazaar (Singapore edition) in the breeze. I ordered an iced coffee and a grilled vegetable sandwich.

And here it is…

The sandwich was so good! It’s the kind of sandwich than when you’re done with it, you feel so content and good!

And then of course I had to have dessert.

Lemon Roulade at Caramel

It was citrusy and fresh. A perfect ending to a meal.

I took a long walk afterwards and now I am back in my hotel room, relaxing and sipping on warm jasmine green tea.

I hope I can discover new places tomorrow!

Until then,

Love from Singapore

tips and tricks

Sometimes when I have a sudden urge to bake, I use some shortcuts and tricks to use what I have already (since I can’t be bothered to the run to the co-op to buy any missing ingredients) or have no time or the patience to wait hours for a dough to chill/something to cool, etc. I also realized that when I post recipes here, I never let you know of some of the tricks and substitutions I learned along the way.

I have complied here a list, although short, of my tips and tricks. Continue reading

Brunching in Dubai

I am back in Kuwait for a few days now and so I apologize for the lack of updates! Time just passes by so quickly that it feels like I have no time to post, although I have content and images for at least 3 different posts! I will have to eventually post them. So please be patient with me.

This is my second post on Dubai. As I said before Dubai’s food is mediocre at its best but when our friend Rahab told us she’s going to surprise with a new breakfast (that later turned to a brunch) place that will surely turn into a post, I knew it had to be good, and it was. Continue reading

Al Rahaa bakery (الرحا)

Dinner from al Rahaa bakery in qadsiya*: sun-dried tomatoes with some kind of crumbled cheese pizza, accompanied with my friend’s Noaf yummy chilli pesto maabouch!

Perfect way to end my weekend…

P.S. experimenting with the wordpress application on my iPhone

*A bakery that specialize in organic and alternative ways of bread-making