Red Dot (birthday celebrations cont'd)

We went to the Red Dot Brewhouse on the 5th of June, after unabashedly claiming the long awaited treat from Dearie at Red Dot. He had promised to bring me there "one day" whereupon that quote was uttered about 2 months ago. What a right time to bring it up again! Hahah.

For those of you who don't know what is so special about Red Dot Brewhouse, here's a little intro for you. The Singaporean owner, Ernest Ng, had met 2 South African soldiers while on a family holiday at the Kruger National Park in 1998. They offered him a bottle of beer, and was told that it was a home-brew when he asked what brand it was. Later on, he went on to a homebrew shop in Johannesburg where he chose some ingredients that were packed into package with a single RedDot, and that began his foray into beer-brewing.

Since then, the brews, as well as the well designed restaurant @ Dempsey Hill have received numerous accolades.

I saw a rainbow on the floor, where sun shone through the glass at the busstop.
It was in the morning, on the way to work.

For this day, I wore this dress that I bought very long ago while on a shopping trip with Mo, and we both have the same dress. It's a uber pretty, flowery, lacy dress. In fact, the whole dress is covered in lace. Instead of looking frivolous and bimbotic, we both thought the dress was awesome in its wholesome vintage-ness. My new shoes hadn't arrived yet, so I was wearing my worn down red leather heels, and the dress on clinched at the waist with a large brown belt. But I don't have a full length picture of myself from that day.

We arrive at the restaurant to where a huge red balloon greeted us.

This way please.

The romantically lit entrance.

The house of the brewing gizmos.

I just love this shot.

Effect achieved by placing napkin over flash.

RedDot Lime Wheat and Monster Green beers. The Monster Green was good.

They have lanterns that seem to hover above the paths around the compound. It is really pretty!

Von and Freddo arrive after Kate Willis class. They're ravenous.

Perfect for cheeselovers:
Xuzi's order was the classic 4 cheese pizza - Quattro Formaggi. No meat served.

I was dying to have mushrooms, so I ordered Pollo -
BBQ chicken, mushrooms, onions and bell peppers.

Von's Pumpkin Lasagna. Soozey said the baby spinach topping was a forest of weeds that he'd never touch, just while Fred was gasping at the same said "forest" in envy.

Fred ordered Duck Confit. Apparently the right way to say it is
[con-FEE!] with the FEE! sounding high pitched and nasal.

I told you. He's hungry.

Our order.

That's a tower of beer that't not ours. I'm just showing you this shot to show off this picture. I love my camera, muahaha.

We also ordered a basket of juicy, fried Shitake mushrooms as appetisers, being the funghi-lovers that we are, and stopped ourselves from finishing them all before Von and Fredo came. But oops, it was gone too fast for the camera to snap a decent picture of it. Just order it if you go there!

We ordered another jug of Czech Pilsner to quench our thirst in the sweltering weather. I think by this time I was a little sleepy and light headed from drinking beer like water.

Czech Pilsner is a really great drink, smooth and light hop (whatever that means, lifted off the website) I shall order it if I ever come back again! And for those who are looking for nice places to host their birthdays at, this is one great place that I'd recommend. There is a little yard where the grass patch is alternately tiled with huge stone tiles. The ambience will be great whether in the afternoon for tea or at night for socialising activity. But I believe the cost is a little on the high side.

As always, it's a great time with the intellectual jokers. I love your company!

O(ldie)Dear(ie)

It was the BF birthday on the 15th this month. And he couldn't take a day off because he HAD to be a work. :/ And sadly, yours truly was really quite broke (trying to save up) and so I had to make him his present instead of buying something that he wants.

It was just after the exams and some mad rush for finalising the details of my birthday party, so I had to assemble his present in bits and pieces, here and there over a few days. But I had to do the bulk of it throughout the night and the morning anyways.

If a picture was a thousand words, what would you call a photo album?

It was a really sticky affair, rolling the rice into balls. I forgot that I had to oil my hands slightly, and I ended up scraping tons of rice off my fingers throughout the first rice ball. After that the remnants on my fingers sort of hardened and I felt like I had cracked fingers.

I made the tamago and sushi myself. It's amazing how much content YouTube has these days. When I couldn't really picture how to roll the egg just by looking at a recipe, I just YouTubed it, and tada! There it is! And now I can make tamago!

I bought the sashimi and wasabe from the sushi shop, cos I didn't know how else to get hygenic and fresh sashimi. I couldn't resist eating a piece before I made the dish, haha. It was really fresh, and the presentation was so nice, XZ thought the arrangement was straight from the shop. Muahaha! It's my skilled artist hands at work again! :P

I had fun making the lunch (and eating them). Hope you had a great birthday dearie! (:


PS:/ Just a note though, to anyone who wants to make sushi, please do not attempt to replace the Japanese rice with our usual Thailand fragrant rice, or omit the rice vinegar and some sugar. It would taste absolutely bland. You have to add the above condiments to the tamago mix if you want to make the tamago.

Happy Birthday Mom!

It took quite a bit of planning and co-ordination to give my Mum a surprise on her 55th birthday. Sis and I brainstormed, and our relatives (姨姨 & 姨仗, Kai, Papa, XZ & I, SQ & Sis shared her present.)

Guess what we had in store for her? (;



After Dearie took me to this same spa on Valentine's Day, I liked the place so much that I arranged for Mummy to go there.

We went to the branch at Chinatown, cos the branch at Holland V. was full.

Armed with Mo's DSLR, I snapped lotsa random shots today.

I was wearing Papa's red checkered/tartan shirt, with black tights and red RI shoes (from Dearie).

Carried Dearie's bag. I love it! I like my outfit for today.

Sis trying out the DSLR. Not a bad shot ah, looks great. :b
Greasy fingerprints on the phone. Sis doesn't know Audrey Hepburn. =.=


While waiting for my mum, my Sis and I sat here for 2.5 hours. She amused herself by recording her voice in my phone, pretending to be me saying the most retarded things, and attempted to make it my alarm tone so that I'd be scaared awake every morning. But she failed miserably.

I love her. She's so damn cute.

Mummy's out! She really enjoyed it. (:

Then Daddy drove us to one of my favourite food haunts at Beach Road. It's located really near Raffles Hotel.

YD brought me here sometime last year, to try their bread. And I came again to try their Hainan Pork in Claypot (海南扣肉). From then on, I came to this place whenever I needed to satiate my craving for fatty pork in vinegar.

I brought Dearie here too, and he got hooked on the dish. So I thought I'd let my family try it.

I like the quirky, homey, ambience.

Norh! The above-mentioned dish, 海南扣肉 *Salivates*

And their bread, with Kaya and butter. The bread is soft that when you bite into it, it compresses till its barely 1 cm thick. The home-made Kaya is not too sweet, and there is a huge dollop of butter in the middle. I want it for breakfast everyday!

This is their 星州米粉. It is really not bad, in all honesty. Much better than their fried rice which is rather bland.

It was a really good day.. till papa somehow threw a rather uncalled-for tantrum and proceeded to drive haltingly and looking surly all the time. And reduced everyone's mood to zero. Oh well. What a... Sigh. Papa is papa lor, what to do.

妈咪 ，生日快乐！

祝我生日快乐

Before I go out to Sentosa in a while, on a rainy day. Heh.