My Monday

Today M and I went out w Twiggy (: Isn't she gorgeous? ((: Soft and smooshy!! That's a juicy charm hanging on the zipper (:



We stopped by Chinatown as M went to a bike shop to see if his was salvageable, but apparently the integrity of the frame has been compromised... Chim speak, there's a dent on it and well that means it will die in a minor bump.

After that he dropped by one of the Pearl something buildings in Chinatown, the one w Koi, and bought durian pancake! Yums (: $2 for a jumbo one, but the durian has been a bit watered down instead of the thick gooey mashed durian it used to be.



Then we went to Jurong East Library to borrow books on Bangkok (: Nearby, at the building which houses Fairprice, there's a new BBT shop called Agantea, from Taiwan (:



Me w my Agan Green Milk T w pearls! ((:



as you can see, the pearls are clear! Their pretty soft but chewy. The tea was pretty yums but VERY milky - the green t was a bit too mild. Ordered black t but she took the wrong order.. And my first one she just gave me Agan Green T (without milk) so be very clear on your order (:



M had the Hawaiian Fruit T, which was pretty good (: I cant really tell what it is except there's definitely lime inside (:



The shop people were really nice anyway, M poked his straw but it wouldnt go in and his fruit t slipped out of his hand and exploded on the floor, and they cleaned up the place and gave him a new one!

Thumbs up for Agantea (:

Plus its cheaper than Koi (:

Ootoya

Today was my second visit to Ootoya, a Japanese restaurant chain which I believe has outlets in Japan and Thailand.







It serves dishes reminiscent of home-cooked food - and they come either a la carte (just the main dish) or in a set.

The set costs about $3-5 more - and it comes with rice, pickled cucumbers, an appetiser, and miso soup - unless your set already has a soup dish.

The appetiser was yummy. It reminded me of the one at Sushi Kikuzawa at International Plaza, except it was cold. It consists of steamed slices of white radish, carrot, lotus and a small piece of chicken. And the miso soup is filled with tiny slices of white radish, carrot, yam, and pork. Its definitely a new take on miso soup - but tastes very wholesome!

Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the appetiser or miso soup (:

Here's what we ordered:



Charcoal grilled pork slices set - I've stopped eating pork so I didnt try this, but the portion, as with most everything, was decent and looked delish!



Pickled cucumber (:



I think this was the Chargrilled chicken with orange sauce.



Chargrilled chicken with basil sauce and salad (about $16 for a set): I had this on my first visit to Ootoya (: The chicken was grilled till tender, and one can taste the full flavour of chargrilled meat! The slices were very thick and juicy. But it's a pity they don't put much sauce - on all three chargrilled dishes. It also comes with slices of hard-boiled egg, which complements the crisp, generous serving of salad very well (: But this doesn't taste Japanese at all - the drizzle of basil sauce made it more fusion-like. But still tasty.



I didn't quite fancy the staff recommendation of scallop on rice with chicken tofu soup (about $20 for a set). The rice (above) was topped with miso sauce and three small scallops - I do wish it had more scallops - the portion wasn't in proportion to the other three sets ordered. Then again, it was served with a huge bowl of soup, filled with tofu, chicken and cabbage slices. The texture at first was a bit like that of shark's fin soup - but the starch soon dissolved and it tasted like normal clear soup after a while. For this, the flavours just didn't appeal to me.



Why a photo of rice? Because my sister was such a big fan of it, she wanted a photo taken of it! She actually asked for a refill (free) of rice - and finished 2/3 of the second bowl. Impressive. She usually eats 2/3 of one bowl of rice. And M, who I went with the first time, finished his whole bowl of rice although he usually doesn't eat much rice. It is that good (:



And what meal would be complete without dessert (: Ootoya offers quite a selection - I think about eight choices. But we got all excited only to have the waiter tell us there were only two choices available - the egg pudding with caramel sauce and the green tea ice cream in soya milk syrup ($5).

I of course chose green tea ice cream (: It was fantastic, I spooned up every drop. The scoop was surrounded by two pieces of plain rice balls, lots of red beans, and green tea jelly! It was really really good - the ice cream was bittersweet, the rice balls were soft and chewy, the red beans sweet, and the green tea jelly melted in my mouth - it was a bit mousse-like. I would definitely return for this, and it's only $5! Unfortunately I couldn't make out the soya milk syrup at all (: But still bang for the buck.

So would I return? Yes most definitely. But I wouldn't have the tontoroni set (scallop on rice and chicken tofu soup) again.

Try it for yourself (:

Ootoya
#08-12
Orchard Central

It can be quite crowded, and unfortunately they don't accept reservations. They also don't allow you to get a table unless half of your party is present - ie table for four, two people have to be present.

Hope you like the place too!

Another FO!

FO = Finished Object

Its a knitting term. I like how UFO sounds better though. As you prolly have guessed, it means UnFinished Object (: hahaha. So cute.







Scarf for Z who's doing her master's overseas (:

I'm glad I haven't stopped knitting after the first FO I did for my niece a year ago!

Barrage/Kites/Skies/Flyer

As mentioned in the last post, here are some slides which I took at the months ago picnic and scrabble outing (: Unfortunately, I realised near the end that I had not set the ISO, and it was on 400 instead of 100 - resulting in 2 stops underexposure (: I've tried my best to save them! They look super saturated :D





It was a CROWDED day. VERY crowded day (:





Which made me very surprised because the previous time I went (before this outing), the Barrage was pretty empty! Just a few lonely sheep (:

Detail lost here from underexposure is pretty bad, but try to make out the many uncountable heads there..



EAGLE!









I LOVE PHOTOGRAPHY (: film photography





Happy Miak the jumper (: @ Haikou, China



Colour shift... I don't know why





And unfortunately it ends here! Cos I happily finished my roll in China, thinking I had another new one in my bag... Yes they were in my bag. My main luggage bag, not the camera bag! Oh well (:

About the Octopus

No, not Paul the famous cephalopod, which is unbelievably hard to spell, I might add!

Yes the blog is due for an update! I realised that I often like to read old posts.. It helps me remember wot went on in a specific time of my life (:

So, I wanted to upload some film photos... and then realised that I had uploaded some on Facebook which I didn't blog about. M's octopus that is (:

The thing is, we went to the Marina Barrage one day...



It was months ago, perhaps in January or February.

I can still remember the potato salad and tuna sandwiches that Hanh made (:





That's Hanh, with my camera (:



And M, finishing the potato salad. So very yummmmmy....!

Well this was all back when it was just a jc friends gathering (:

And we went there to have a picnic and play Scrabble!





Hehe, that's the super cute drawstring bag I got for the Scrabble tiles so I wouldn't lose any! Two are missing already.



Doesn't this remind you of There's Something About Mary? The part where she put something in her hair...



We saw loads of kites being flown.





Speaking of which, kites are like everywhere in Singapore now! I see them in Boon Lay... I heard West Coast and East Coast Park are full of them too... Not to forget Barrage of course (:

It just reaffirms my thinking that Singaporeans are all followers. One person can do something, and then everyone will follow. We're like a bunch of silly sheep, to be honest. Silly Singaporeans.

And then just as we were leaving, we spotted this really cool kite!!



with an extreeeeemely long tail (: which M happened to find really really cool!

Okay now skip forward a few months, to May, where during my trip to Haikou with the girls, I spotted the coolest kite ever!! It was soaring in the sky. And it had EIGHT tails.

Fine, tentacles.

Of course, I thought of M (:

It was crazy expensive (especially since we were in China, but given that he likes huge kites - with tails - and diving / water, I thought the octopus was perfect!)

*Let me warn you first that this is a very long post (or at least photo-heavy!)

Our first outing was to West Coast Park (: Which Jo recommended as a very windy and popular kite-flying spot. Back when there weren't many kites in Singapore yet, for when we went, the park was empty. There was no wind. The weather was scorching hot. And our kite wouldn't fly - unless you count running around and dragging the kite in the air, flying.

So instead we sat on the mat and burnt ourselves.





For we were waiting for the elusive wind to arrive... which didn't, we sadly realised after more than an hour in the sun, far from the shade.

So we played the uke instead :D





Our next attempt, was at the Barrage. A place where we previously saw many kites doing what kites should.



This time, Beverley, my best friend in Canada came along! And I made my version of potato salad... which was not as good as Hanh's, let's leave it at that (:



Unrolling the kite!



M looks optimistic (:

But, while everyone's kite flew, ours was only content to fly when being dragged around.



Personally, I thought it was too overweight. It was HUGE! And heavy.



The two happy and still-optimistic people (:

Unfortunately, happiness was short-lived as the weather turned gloomy.

I played the uke while the two tried hard (:



Then they gave up and we had our meal!! I can't quite remember wot I made, it wasn't memorable ): I should stick to baking.





Bev learnt You Are My Sunshine on the uke!

Unfortunately the kite didn't fly that day either...



Apparently nothing dampens their spirit (:



Well!

Matthew kept saying that third time's the charm (even on our first attempt) and I remained sceptical.



We went to this large, correction, HUGE empty field somewhere in Woodlands. Follow the kites and you'll find it (: Oh, and police car, which gets called often to get rid of illegally parking drivers (:



Was M running around while that kite stayed in the air?



Was he?



*TADA* no running involved!

Haha. The field was much too muddy anyway, there was much waterlogged areas, that we had to watch where we tread.



The wind kept dying though, although it was quite strong most of the time. That's me getting the kite up!



It would mostly fly far, but remain low.

Once it got pretty high though!! :D Happy!



I guess third time really is the charm (:



And that ends the story of M's octopus (:

Stay tuned next, for scans of film slides taken during the first Barrage outing. Their oversaturated. But I love them!!