Singapore: Episode 8

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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

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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

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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

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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 4

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Today was not as exciting as I hoped. Far from it.

I basically had breakfast on the run because I woke up late, not that the hotel’s breakfast is anything to look forward to.

For lunch, I wanted to try a sandwich/soup/salad place next to where all the banks are (very close to my hotel and the museum).

So I went there…

And had this…

Grilled vegetable sandwich. It was good, nothing spectacular.

After finishing my sandwich, the weather was beautiful, so I decided to take a lemon cupcake and put my lime juice in a plastic cup and sit outside with all those bankers.

After finishing our work at the museum at 5pm, the weather was getting hotter and stickier. We saw the ice cream vendor. I see them all the time but never got the courage to actually get ice cream from there. My DAI team members went straight to the ice cream man and I asked for chocolate.

He cuts them in thick rectangular slices and sandwiches them between two wafers, and sometimes bread!

I went back to the hotel and never left. I ordered room service.

And this is what I ordered…

Mushroom risotto. And again it wasn’t anything spectacular..

I guess you can’t always have exciting food discoveries every day…

Singapore: Episode 3

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So… today’s post will be short but I will compensate with more pictures.

Breakfast and dinner sucked so much that I won’t even mention them.

But what was in between was beyond fantastic!

During our lunch break, my colleagues at the museum decided to take me to a spicy restaurant….exciting!

We walk around new territories (at least for me) and it was wonderful! Small shops and vendors everywhere and an air conditioning street!

And then we pass by a row of small restaurants that almost look like street vendors. We get to the Malay one.

Doesn’t it look so colorful and wish you could have everything on there! Well I did!

And this is what my colleague ordered for us…

Roasted peanuts and dried anchovies

From left clockwise: A vegetable curry that reminds of Thai green curry, a stir-fried green leaf that I dont know what it is but it was yummy and this is all it matters, prawn in a chilli gravy, and the gravy of butter chicken (quite pointless)

Bbqed chicken which is possibly then later cooked in this sauce

My plate! They give each customer a plate of rice laid on a banana leaf.  Very cute!

This is the kind of food I wanted to try! I am so glad they took me there. It really was the best food I have had so far here in Singapore and I can’t wait to go back. Everything was delicious! From the perfectly cooked chicken to the can’t have enough vegetable curry to the surprisingly sweet roasted peanut and dried anchovies dish. I highly recommend it. I’ll get the name of the place tomorrow.

I hope tomorrow’s food post is as exciting.

Goodnight for now!

Singapore: Episode 2

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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

Singapore: Episode 1

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Greetings from Singapore! I am here for the next 20 days for “business”. Actually while I’m at it let me market the organization I work for. My colleagues and I are in Singapore to install and set up Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah’s world famous exhibition, “Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals”, which is opening on February 12th to the public at the Asian Civilisations Museum  in Singapore! So if you’re in Singapore anytime from that date until June 27th be sure to check it out! For more information click here.

So back to the food business. Since I will be gone for so long, I thought that having a food diary would keep this place alive and its’s also a way to document my trip, through food nonetheless. My plan is to post once a day.

So now I give you day 1…

My days are all messed up. I am jet lagged. I don’t even know what day it is. All I know is that I woke up after 12 + hours and then some more sleep and I was starving. It’s Sunday and I wanted brunch, not hotel breakfast. So I searching online what’s the trendy place to go have brunch on a lazy Sunday and this is what I found…

It was a located at what seems to be a brand new shopping mall (ION Orchard) and the atmosphere at the cafe was quite lovely. Very chic! Also, excellent location for people watching.

I ordered an eggs benedict. It was good although the hollandaise sauce was a bit too tart for my taste. I will definitely take my parents for late lunch or dinner when they come visit in a few days!

After a few hours of walking around Orchard Road, I needed to drink my tea, relax and have something sweet. I went back to the Ion Orchard, as the metro station was there , and found JAMS, a small coffee shop in the bookshop Prologue with an endless array of delicious looking cakes and pastries.

I ordered mint tea, a raspberry crumble and my newly purchased book.

It was a much needed break.

I went straight back to the hotel, and needless to say I slept some more! I’m telling you, I am SO jet lagged.

I woke up a couple of hours later hungry and still very tired. I ordered room service…

I wanted to try something Singaporean so I ordered their Signature Laksa, a coconut-based soup noodle, with bean sprouts, fish cakes, prawns, quail eggs (which were too heavy!) and some other mysterious ingredients that I couldn’t figure out.  It was delicious!

Ok I need to go to bed now, first day of work at the museum tomorrow (umm today)!

Enjoy!

Mom’s Carrot Cake

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This has become quite the hit wherever my mother takes it. It’s a no-fuss cake that you enjoy with your morning or afternoon tea.

Many people have asked for its recipe so here it is! Of course this will make my dear mother quite happy as she is already excited that her famous shakshouka is on my blog!

Mom’s Carrot cake

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 ¼ cups sugar
  • 1 cup oil
  • 6 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon orange zest
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • 3 cups shredded carrots
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 160 °C
  2. Beat eggs until frothy and then mix in the sugar until thick (ribbon-stage). Add oil and mix.
  3. Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture gradually.
  4. Mix in the orange zest, cinnamon, walnuts, shredded carrots and orange juice.
  5. Butter and flour a 10 or 12-inch cake pan and then pour the batter.
  6. Bake for 45 minutes or until golden.

Enjoy!

Stuffed Prunes by Guest Blogger

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I am taking a break and allowing my Guest Blogger (who also happens to be my sister) to take over today…


During Ramadan, one of the local TV channels presented a daily show on which celebrities were invited to cook a dish while being interviewed.  It was interesting observing people you would normally see performing their celebrity-yielding professions handling food.  But I could hardly claim any of the dishes that were presented during the month-long show as inspiring.  Only one dish intrigued me.  Stuffed prunes presented by Nabila Al-Anjari.  While watching the show, I wasn’t able to write down the recipe or take note of the cooking method.  Fortunately, a dear friend happens to know the celebrity guest and I asked her to kindly get the recipe.  The request was passed on, and I got a surprise call from Continue reading →