Singapore Adventure: Simple Christmas Feast

It's my first Christmas away from my family. Last year, though I was already based here in SG, I came home for Christmas to spend the festive season with my family and friends. This year, I spent a wet Christmas in SG. But the best part of it is I get to spend the entire day with my Cookie. ^_^

We started Christmas Day late. Skipped breakfast but I made up for it by serving a nice seafood dish for lunch. My (almost perfected) Buttered Garlic Shrimps.

My Cookie is not as big a fan of seafood as I am. But since it's Christmas and he loves me too much, so he pretends he is a fan every now and again. Well, with a little blackmailing strategy which involves him not getting any dessert, he did down a few pieces of shrimp that I shelled for him. :P

And being a good boy that he is, finishing the lovely shrimp dish I've prepared for him, he deserved the Lechen Flan reward I had for him. :))

When lunch was done, we spent some time in front of the tube. After we've gone tired of all other shows available on cable, we decided to give in to the urge of seeing a "free copy" of Twilight. We've been meaning to catch it in the theatres but never really got to it. And most likely by the time we don find the time, it would most likely not be showing anymore.

Read the book, seen the movie. Well, I am a fan of the book, but not so much of the movie. The movie was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. The way the story was told in book was very fluid, spontaneous, and the way the words were put together and told through the dialogues in the book sounds deliciously as you read them. But the movie, it gave me a feeling of skipping a few chapters or randomly flipping through the pages of the book. The acting was not as convincing making the dialogues sound flat, almost losing its flavour. Sorry if I am being too critical, I just really am not a buff of screen adaptations of books. Well, I did enjoy A Walk to Remember and Stardust, but still something is lost when the book is translated to the silver screen.

So, after almost 3 hours of Twilight, half the time spent blurting out side comments, it's time to prepare Christmas Dinner. This time, nothing fancy, just some Grilled Pork Loin Chops and a sidedish of Buttered Baby Carrots and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes.




The Cookies had a great Christmas. ^_^

Singapore Adventure: Christmas Macaroons

Christmas is a great time to bring out the great food. Hehehe...

Well, what do you expect me to do, being stuck in SG away from my family on this festive season? So, I waited for the clock to strike 12 working in my little kitchen.

I whipped up my Cookie's favorite leche flan. I used my tried and tested recipe, of course! Once I've perfected a recipe, I don't want to experiment any further. It will just be a big disappointed to see something nice and beautiful totally defaced just for the sake of giving in to curiosity. :p

I also whipped up something new with the help of my latest kitchen toy! Macaroons! ^_^ Oh, my newest kitchen toy? A Cornell Oven Toaster, something I get to claim for my DBS Credit Card Rewards points. It is only an 8 litre toaster oven, but does the work I want it to do. Hehehe..

And so, here is the product of my latest kitchen experiment... my Christmas Macaroons.

Ingredients:

2 100 gram packs of dessicated coconut

4 eggs beaten

1 250 ml can condensed milk

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup softened butter

1 tbsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp lime juice

100 pcs paper cups

Procedures:

1. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Mix well until all the ingredients are well-blended.

2. Scoop the coconut batter into paper cups. Don't fill the cups up to the brim, keep it at 3/4 full only as the batter will rise as it baked.

3. Bake for 10-15 minutes just only until the tops are golden brown.

4. Leave to cool before serving.

5. To store, pack in airtight containers and put in the fridge.

Singapore Adventure: Kuishin Bo Lunch Buffet

In celebration of the Festive Season, our team organized a lunchout today at the Kuishin Bo Japanese Restaurant at Suntec City Tower 1.

Kuishin Bo is popular for it's "All You Can Eat in 1 Hour" lunch buffet offer. One head costs SGD 25.00++ exclusive of a 10% Service Charge and 12% Government Tax. So, technically, it is a bit expensive compared to a 3 SGD Chicken Rice meal at Kopitiam. But, I can attest that every dollar I paid for my meal at Kuishin Bo is worth it!

They have a wide selection of the favored Japanese flair of sushi and sashimi. There are also cook foods, of course. I ogled at the nice and crispy tower of ebi fry and ebi tempura. I cannot have so much as I am watching what I eat now. :P

They do serve great desserts - fresh fruits, tarts, chocolate, cakes, mini donuts, traditional Japanese desserts (something that looked like "kueh" on a stick, I forgot the name), mochi, and dorayaki (Doraemon's favorite food!). A chocolate fountain and soft ice cream to finish it all off. :P~ I went for the fruits and some of the tarts, donuts and chocolate. I didn't fancy very much for the others. Though based on my lunch buddies' comments, everything were good.

Plenty of drinks to try out also. Aside from the usual carbonated drinks, they also have a wide selection of Lipton Tea. I didn't try any of them though. I was tempted to pocket one, but there's a large signage explicitly saying that the items should be consumed within the restaurant premises and so I dropped the idea. :P

Everybody enjoyed the food. And the ambiance, too.

Here is a quick snap of the resto fascade and some of my teammates with big grins and full bellies. ^_^

I am taking my Cookie to try out Kuishin Bo in the next few weeks. With that much food around, we'll surely have a blast! :P

Singapore Adventure: Another Chicken Recipe

I have been craving for that dish my Mama cooks for us. It's chicken with tomato sauce, and potatoes and carrots. I am not sure exactly if it is Afritada, but when I checked out the recipe for Afritada, it quite fits. And so, I went for it. I prepared Chicken Afritada for dinner tonight.

It turned out quite well, to my surprise. Hehehe...

When I prepare chicken dishes these days, I just go for the filleted ones that you can pick right off of the grocery chilled food section. Let's just do away with the bones. ^_^

There is still some leftover and so we're having a "rerun" of it at tomorrow's breakfast table.

Singapore Adventure: Home Alone

While my Cookie is away, I am loading up on veggies. And today's lunch special was Guinisang Sitaw sa Bagoong. Yum! ^_^

I can hardly remember the last time I have prepared it. But I can clearly remember how my Cookie enjoyed it when I served it to him. And here's my recipe. Well, at least the procedure. The measurements of each ingredient is just however I feel the food should taste like. Hehe...

Here it goes.


1. Heat up some oil in the wok. Add finely chopped garlic and some sliced onion. Add the bagoong.
2. Put in the sliced pork. Keep on stirring until pork is golden brown.
3. Add in the sitaw. If the saute comes too dry, pour in some water.
4. Leave it to cook until sitaw is soft enough.
5. Serve with some steaming rice.

Singapore Adventure: Cubee Crazy (Update)

Two new Cubee creations by Princess Cookie.

Computer geeks should definitely recognize this fellow. Say "Hi!" to Tux. ^_^

And who doesn't recognize this Italian Plumber from the colorful world of Nintendo? :D Made it at lunch break today. Now, it sits on my PM's office desk. My Christmas present to him before he goes on leave for the festive season.

I've a couple more lined up to do while my Cookie is vacationing back home.

Miss you already, my Cookie.

Singapore Adventure: Cubee Crazy

This is what's been keeping me preoccupied. ^_^

This is Hell Boy. Cute, huh? I gave it to my teammate as a birthday present.

I also made Santa Claus but I don't have the photo here. It's sitting comfortably at my Cookie's office desk.

I have a couple more Cubees to make lined up for the weekend without my Cookie. Will post them up when I finish them.

If you want to start your own Cubee collection, check out this site. All the templates are free!

(Update 1)

Just finished another one... Meet Mr. Stay Puft. You should be able to recognize him if you are a Ghost Busters fan. Hehehe...

Now Cubee Santa Claus will have a friend at my Cookie's office desk. ^_^

Singapore Adventure: Kinokuniya Shopping Spree

As a friend of the boyfriend unit has come to town for some visiting and shopping, where else to bring him but Orchard Road?


And so while there, I grabbed that chance to scratch my credit card crazy with purchases at Kinokuniya. Well, not all the books are for me. I only bought two for myself and the others are for my cousin Rose.


Book # 1: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight


Oh yes, I am joining the bandwagon. My curiosity has been triggered with all the fuzz about this book. When I was home in the Philippines last September, I have been warned that this book has been selling like hotcakes amongst college girls. But I was not as convinced at that time. When I returned to Singapore weeks later, movie posters for the same book have been splattered at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. And so, I am finally giving in.


I've always been a fan of vampire stories. I've seen both movie adaptations of two of Anne Rice's vampire novels. Apart from plenty of other Vampire versus Lycan a.k.a. Werewolf flicks. And this new vampire novel should be interesting for me as well.



Book # 2: Jason F. Wright's The Wednesday Letters

It had an interesting red cover, the font title on the cover is not as catching but match the red front cover perfectly, it is thick enough that will make you believe it has quite a story to tell and best of all, the title itself will just make you think, what do those letters have to reveal?

Aren't we all curious little creatures who'd cringe over peeking into other people's private mails? Well, this is my confession. I am sucker for letters, specifically, love letters. This should give me a dose of my long-lost creative juices for writing letters and poetry. It's been quite a while since I've penned one. Hopefully, reading this book will just give me a jumpstart to find my "muse" again.

The other books are for my cousin. She meant to buy the books when she was here a couple of weeks ago, but I told her to hold it off until she's sure it will not be available at Powerbooks in the Philippines soon. But it seems that the release dates for these books in the Philippines are still indefinite, and so I just purchased them for her, all 4 volumes in the series. My Cookie will just bring them home for her.

Singapore Adventure: Christmas Social Event

Our unit in the office is preparing for a Christmas Social Event which we will hold on Friday next week. I've put together a digital Christmas Party Invitation to send out to the people in our unit. Tell me what you think? ^_^

It has been a while since I did a layout. Feeling a bit rusty already. Appreciate any inputs. ^_^

Layout Design Notes

Used paper and felt element from the Shabby Princess SeasonalSampler - Winter. Alpha for Unit 4 text from Alpha Snow by Digiscrap.ch. Fonts used include DellaRobbia BT and dearJoe four. Gift box clipart from Microsoft Clipart Gallery, recolored the graphic to match the "Winter" theme. Used Corel Paintshop Pro X for putting all the things together.

Singapore Adventure: Musical Cookie

In the spirit of the season,

please give my Musical Cookie a big round of applause for his rendition of

Oh Christmas Tree.

^_^

Singapore Adventure: Oh Christmas Tree

It's Christmas at the Cookie house. Presenting our 7-foot Christmas Tree. ^_^

We've never had a tree this tall and so when we had the chance to pick a tree, we went all the way! Hehehe.. Got the tree for 99 SGD at John Little. The ornaments are from Ikea. We stuck to the red and silver Christmas balls. All that's left to put on the tree are those little twinkling lights and we're all set for the holidays.

Singapore Adventure: Coraline

It is one of those days at work when you know you have tons of things to do but just could find the will within yourself to getting it done. That is what today is for me. I am having "that day" today.

And so, in between struggling to get my day's work done and the darker side of wandering aimlessly in the WWW, I've stumbled upon Neil Gaiman's website, which I used to frequent before but has recently been less loyal. There I saw that they are making Coraline into a film! And I was all bright-eyed and just held myself back from leaping with joy.

From Neil's site, he links to this wikipedia page which gives the details of the Theatrical Adaptation of Coraline which features the voice of Dakota Fanning as Coraline.

Based on the Wiki Article it is set to be released on Febuary 2009. It is just a short wait but I am not keeping my hopes up. It might still take sometime after that before it hits the Singapore Theaters. But nonetheless, it is worth the anticipation.

- o0o -

I have had the chance to meet Neil Gaiman in person when he went to the Philippines for The Anansi Boys book tour. I got my Coraline book signed by him and a quick snap.

Photo was taken at the Rockwell Tent in July 2005. Plenty of pounds ago. Hehehe...

Singapore Adventure: My Little Critters

Aren't they the cutest??!

I've received threats of my little critters getting "pet-napped".

And if they do get lost... I know who to chase.

I AM WATCHING YOU! ^_^

Singapore Adventure: 1035 Days

Oh yes, that's how long The Cookies have been together. It has been one great ride, and still going...

My Pet Love. A nice package delivered to my office desk this morning from my sweetest Cookie.

One. Two. Three. Cute little critters. An addition to our "Babies". Sitting on a colorful array of roses and white picket fences.

Right back at you! ^_^

Singapore Adventure: Bye-Bye G.G.

I've finished it, Gilmore Girls, all 7 glorious seasons of it. How I hope it would never end. They've all grown up in the show, and I felt that I was totally involved in their story. Sigh. Oh well, time to move it.

It had a great ending, and for that it somehow quells my aching heart of not seeing the girls anymore. Sniff.

Okay... moving on... Any suggestions on the next TV series to fill our DVD rack?

Singapore Adventure: Playing Hosts

This is a long overdue entry. It's been quite hectic at work and there just is no time to put on my writer's cap on. But now I am back. Hopefully...

- o0o -

October 26 to 29, 2008. The Cookies played host to my cousin Rose and college batchmate Ritz who paid us a quick visit it being Semestral Break in the Philippines.

It was not even a weeks long! But we all had a blast. It was short and sweet indeed! ^_^

The usual tour itinerary for first timers in SG - Sentosa, Singapore Zoo and Night Safari, Science Centre and Snow City. And since our guests are really keen into "crossing the border", we literally did! A half day tour of Johore Bahru, Malaysia to cap off this wonderful vacation.

- o0o -

Early start for the gang. We waited for the Tour Bus at the Marriot Hotel lobby. At 9:00 am, the group joined the other tourists in a bigger Tour Bus at the Singapore Flyer site. From there, we drove down to Johore Bahru.

At the Malaysian side of the border, our tour guide for the day, Asok, joined us. Then our first stop was at the Batik Craft Centre. Apart from the informative lecture on Batik making, the staff also rendered a musical performance playing Malaysian native musical instruments. The "angklung" is specifically interesting. According to my Cookie, it is now his favorite musical instrument! ^_^

As part of the tour, we drove down to other tourist stops in JB like the Mosque, the Cemetery, and a typical Malaysian household with a lush backyard garden where we were also entertained with some music and dancing.

It was only a quick half day tour, but truly informative! And below is a photo of the tourists with Asok the tour guide.

- o0o -

We enjoyed ourselves indeed, though we burnt holes into our pockets with plenty of "take homes" to remember this travel.

We got silk Batik scarves, a pewter cup set, t-shirts, and an angklung CD recording. Hehe...