Wednesday 10th Dec '08

Singapore Day 9


[0830hrs] Duck noodles for breakfast! Despite my Aunty’s disapproval for what I have for breakfast, I am absolutely loving it!



[1030hrs] I couldn’t resist taking a photo of these vegetables my mum was preparing for lunch for herself and Aunty. We have the same vegetable back home in Perth but I haven’t seen it with the purple before.



[1300hrs] Christina and I met up with David and his friend, Danielle, for lunch at Canele, a little cafe located in the basement level of Raffles City. It was a modern style place - Danielle ordered the Provencial Chicken Stew while the rest of us had pasta.

Christina - Spaghetti Marinara - SD$16.50
mussels, scallops, squids, prawns cooked in white wine
tomato sauce with chilli and Italian parsley

David & myself - Pesto Prawn - SD$16.50
spaghettini tossed in a classic basil pesto
with sauteed prawns


Mmm...my spaghetti was absolutely delicious! I have to say, I’m glad it wasn’t a very big serve because it left room for dessert. David ordered two crepe dishes for us to share.

Crepes Exotique - SD$12.50
flambeed caramelised banana, chocolate sauce,
passionfruit banana sorbet, vanilla tuile
and vanilla creme chantilly

Crepes Tarte Tartin - SD$12.50
flambeed caramelised apple with toffee,
creme chantilly and caramelised filo pastry


As you can see from the photos, they were soooo good! Not too sweet so just perfect for me.

Now, when the bill arrived, I beat David to getting my credit card out and quickly signed the bill when they returned. I had a quick glance at the total cost and thought it didn’t sound right - the sum of the bill made me suspect we were being undercharged. I thought that perhaps David had settled the bill for our main courses and the desserts were on a separate bill, but no. I checked with David later in the evening and turns out that they must have had some sort of miscommunication or a glitch in their computer because we only got charged for our desserts and coffees!!

After lunch, Danielle and David returned to their respective work places, Christina went shopping and I headed to Bugis for a few hours before going to Novena Square.

[1730hrs] I spotted this gorgeous Santa walking around with his female elf assistant, handing out a little box of complimentary sweets to shoppers. I just had to stop and ask him for a photo - hee hee!

Have you been a good girl this year?


[1700hrs] After spending an hour getting lost and walking around and around in circles (or should I say squares), I FINALLY found our meeting spot - outside the Donut Factory. I had to walk outside the shopping mall and walk around the outside of the building until I found it. I’d been walking past it all the time - the exit it was located at just looked like a dead-end to me from the inside!

Making sure I could find it again, I quickly looked for the nearest reflexology place and headed there. Unfortunately, I had half an hour before meeting with Christina and David for dinner, so I asked them if they could compress the foot reflexology session - which is usually 40 minutes - into 30 minutes for me. I would have made it out in time had the therapist (or should I say reflexologist?) not needed to go for a toilet break before starting on me. My poor feet were killing me! I nodded off a few times while listening to my mp3 player. A much needed massage before having to get up on my feet again.

[2000hrs] Dinner at Nanjya Monjya Waterfront. This place was fantastic! Despite the drunken rowdiness of a table seated in the window, we enjoyed ourselves. We let David order for us and I really didn’t know how I was going to know what dishes we had but when I got the bill, everything is itemised and the names of each dish are printed out in full - that helps! I just hope I match up the name of each dish to the correct photo! To start with, the most important order - SAKE!

Hakkaisan Honjozo - SD$100.00
1.8L of 55% alcoholic sake


Tako Wasabi - raw squid in a wasabi marinade


Maguro Avo Salad - tuna sashimi and avocado salad


Ninniku Age - deepfried garlic cloves with a rich spicy sauce


Morokyu - slices of fresh cucumber with miso paste
(no photo!)


Seafood Dama - 'okonomiyaki' omelette with seafood
this is the restaurant's signature dish


Yakitori - 10 kinds - these were cooked by a chef outside on their grill and brought in to us
chicken wings
prawn
beans wrapped in bacon?
spring onion
pork
mushroom
peppers
beef liver
and a couple of meats but I don’t remember what they were


Buta Bara Miso - pork belly strips in a miso marinade


Kanpachi Sashimi - Japanese yellowtail sashimi


David - Pana Cotta


Christina - Goma Ice Cream - black sesame


myself - Macha Ice Cream - green tea


At this time, David’s friend HonTym finally managed to get away from work and join us for supper. He also ordered a ‘seafood dama’ but his was served cooked.

Saikoro Steak


Mix Green Salad - I got hungry again!


Ogura Ice Cream - Christina had a second dessert - red bean


Hot Chocolate - David had a second dessert too - self-saucing chocolate cake


Now here’s the kicker. David was showing us his photos of his recent trip to Bhutan, where they consumed more yak cheese than they handle. When Hon Tym ordered this next dish, tofu with cheese, we joked that we hoped it wasn’t yak cheese. I had a chuckle when I found the receipt because the dish is called...

Tofu Men Cheese


HEE HEE


[1150hrs] We finally left the restaurant and Hon Tym had to bid us goodnight because he had surgery in the morning. Not going for surgery, but performing it. He’s an opthalmologist.

David took Christina and I to Zouk! Ranked as one of the top 50 nightclub venues in the world, it was on our list of things-to-do this time in Singapore. The room that David wanted to take us to was full so we had to go to the room next door. Being a Wednesday, it was ladies night so Christina and I got in for free. David had to pay - I don’t know how much, but he got two ‘free’ drink vouchers with his entry. I could hear the music and was already squealing in excitement. They play remixed 80’s and 90’s songs - soo my kind of music!

David had warned us at dinner that the regulars have their choreographed dances for each song. He was not kidding. We saw all the ‘regulars’ on the stages doing their choreographed dances - as if they had been practising infront of a mirror for hours to perfect it. I felt like I was in a game arcade with young teenagers playing some gaming machine where they have to move to the music and score points for getting their arm movements correct. Or a really bad video clip where a bunch of teenagers had been plucked out of school to be backup dancers. It was amusing to watch! Christina and I tried to follow a few of the moves but we couldn’t stand facing them so we just thought ‘bugger it’.

I managed to find a place on one of the stages and it gave me a great view of the back of the night club. I couldn’t really see the rest of it, but the music was great! I loved it! I don’t think I’ll go back though...it felt like it was a much younger crowd. The girls there can’t dance. It was all the guys up on the stages.

[0200hrs] Got home and into bed.

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