an italian job

My company will be holding an event at Sheraton Towers in September this year. So a few months ago, my big boss M emailed DL, our catering sales contact at Sheraton, to discuss the contract further, and she invited us to the hotel for lunch.

So on 21 March, M and I reached Italian restaurant DOMVS at Sheraton nice and early. DOMVS looks pretty small from the outside, but once you push open the heavy doors and enter, you’ll find that it’s larger than you thought. DL soon appeared, with a female colleague of hers in tow.

We each ordered an executive set lunch. This was the first time I dined at such an atas place. And it was also the first executive set lunch that I had since starting work officially in December 2010! So picking and choosing the various courses was a pretty exciting affair. It made me feel all grown up.  Here’s what I had!

sweet teeth

Decided to have a piece of cake before heading home on yesterday evening. Had a slice of tiramisu from the Coffee Bean outlet near my place.

Actually, I’ve tried it before and found that it tastes only slightly reminiscent of real tiramisu.

But despite its mild taste (it contains no alcohol at all, and tiramisu should ALWAYS contain alcohol! :P), I quite like its light and nutty flavour (I think it’s the coffee). And the mascarpone cheese is creamy without being heavy. Overall, a reasonably enjoyable piece of cake.

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
2 Tampines Central 5
#01-14/15
Century Square Shopping Centre
Singapore 529509
+65 6783 3533

sweet teeth

Colleague D wanted to get a present for a friend and asked me to go with her after work yesterday.  Her friend likes Hello Kitty and has an iPhone, so we ended up in this nook in the toy section on the third floor of Takashimaya, which sold anything and everything related to Hello Kitty. And D picked out a Hello Kitty iPhone cover for her friend.

Then we went for coffee at Starbucks in Wisma Atria. D treated me to coffee cos I accompanied her to shop. Haha.

My caramel frappuccino (foreground), and D’s java chocolate chip! (She also had a slice of cheesecake!)

sweet teeth

The mother made creme caramel for dessert last night!

Too troublesome to upturn it onto a dish, so I just ate it upside down!

The custard is more firm and less smooth than the ones I’ve eaten in restaurants, but still delightfully eggy. And the caramel is definitely the icing on the cake. A perfectly light dessert!

in praise of … fruit flies

Something I found really amusing:

In praise of … fruit flies
Male fruit flies, when rejected by females, turn to alcohol. Not for nothing are habitual drinkers sometimes dismissed as bar flies

Drosophila are laboratory favourites: these little fruit flies have short life cycles and active sex lives, so geneticists can track their characteristics over many generations. A proportion of the genes we know best were first identified in fruit fly DNA. From them we learn about basic biochemical processes shared by all living creatures – including us. Now Californian scientists have discovered something touchingly human about these buzzing little insects. Male fruit flies, when rejected by females, turn to alcohol. They are far more likely to booze than their happy, consummated peers. Whisky fans have long noticed how these little companions turn up to share a sip: not for nothing are habitual drinkers sometimes dismissed as bar flies. How poignant to discover that humans and Drosophila melanogaster share more than just a neuropeptide linked to addictive behaviour: they also react to disappointment in love in the same sad, time-honoured way.

The Guardian, 18 March 2012

the chicken in the pie

Chicken pie for dinner tonight, courtesy of the mother!

Chockful of meat, vegetables, eggs and a bit of cheese!

She claimed the pastry was perfect this time; I thought it tasted pretty much the same as her previous pies! :P

s****** up

From an article by Jimmy Yap in the Straits Times’ Digital Life supplement, on ‘apps to make your Valentine’s Day a special one’:

excerpted from Digital Romance, The Straits Times, Digital Life, 8 February 2012, page 10

When I first read this I did a double take at first. Wait, what is a five letter word which starts with s and ends with w? After a moment, I realized. But why did the writer – or was it ST’s policy in general – choose to censor the word screw???

picky eaters

Clearly I have never had children but I found this article very amusing, probably because I can be somewhat fussy about food sometimes:

My nitpicky son makes mealtimes hell

Tan Keng Yao

I have a 20-month-old son whom I love dearly, but there are times when I would love him even more dearly if I could feed him his meals intravenously.

He has a hate-hate relationship with food. He refuses to eat most things offered to him, making mealtimes hell for me, and for his caregivers when I’m at work.

He will eat only mee suah, rice, cod fish, Chinese-style soup, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, papaya, grapes and fresh milk.

There is something from every food group here so, theoretically, he is not nutritionally deprived. But it would really be nice if he had a less selective diet.

sweet teeth

Cinnamon roll studded with raisins, courtesy of the mother, who made them around 5 March.

They’re the nicest cinnamon rolls she’s ever made, because they happen to be the sweetest. :D

more than just brussels sprouts

Sometime in late 2010, I bumped into secondary school classmate Joanne, on a visit back to my university. At that time we were both job hunting, and promised to meet up for a meal when we’d both secured jobs. So we finally decided on dinner at Brussels Sprouts in Robertson Quay on Friday. This was the first time I’d tried Belgian cuisine!

I reached Brussels Sprouts sometime after 7.30 pm. It was very crowded and noisy!

sweet teeth

Popped down to the Coffee Bean outlet for a quick dessert fix yesterday evening before heading home.

Had a slice of cake called Chocolate of a Thousand Leaves. A very poetic name! The counter guy warned me that it would be a bit dry. And alas, it was! The nicest parts of the cake were the ones touching the hazelnut cream filling as they were the moistest. And the chocolate icing was not rich enough. Will not order again. :(

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-18/19
Great World City
Singapore 237994
+65 6836 0177

cucumber and dismemberment

Yesterday’s dinner:

Soya sauce chicken, pan fried potatoes, cucumber pickles (bowl on right), sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes and homemade garlic paste and chilli sauce!!! (Soya sauce the chicken was cooked in not shown.)