Ginseng Chicken Soup - second chance

Peeps say: an optimal dish for relieving stress as chicken is rich in high-quality protein and fat, while ginseng effectively relieves fatigue and depression, and even helps fight anemia and diabetes. So much goodness in one small bowl. But last time we'd tried it... it tasted horribly bitter! The taste suddenly wiped out all the goodness of the soup! Blah! Can't stand it!
This time around we give the soup a second chance. Actually we'd picked it because there were nothing sound more interesting in the soup list than ginseng chicken soup. And it did taste a bit better. Less bitter. More eat-able than the one before. At least by our standard...

Makan Enak Minggu Kemaren (2)

Ini sih bukan makan. Tapi sekedar ngemil. Gara2 tergoda dengan stall mochi di Novena Sq, jadi belilah satu paket. Setelah bayar baru sadar kalo yang dibeli bukan mochi, tapi entah benda apa ini. Bentuknya kayak kepompong ulat sutra atau cerutu warna putih, isinya crushed peanut. Kata temen gue: "itu manis banget loh!" Bah! Kebayangnya putih2nya kayak gulali atau rambut nenek. Hiiii! Jadi balik lagi dan beli mochi yang bener. Sampe di rumah langsung dicobain. Ternyata si cerutu putih ga semanis yang dibayangkan, bahkan cenderung tawar! Kesimpulannya enak juga kok! Cuma makannya kudu ati2, dengan gampang remah2 kacang berceceran dimana2...

Makan Enak Minggu Kemaren (1)

Makan kali ini di resto seafood kesohor: no sign board. Lokasi di Esplanage. Pesenan andalan: chili crab. Side dishes (kalo bisa dibilang side-dishes): kangkung blacan, udang goreng cereal plus kodok goreng tepung mentega. Hasilnya: kenyang ajah. Untuk udang minimal order 2 biji perkepala. Harga tergantung pasar alias ga tau sampai selesai makan. Tapi bener2 memuaskan. Udangnya gede-gede dan gurih pisan. Bener2 ga rugi. Kodoknya juga gede dan gendut. Cuma kita masih lebih doyan chili crab ala Yishun Seafood ketimbang yang ini. Sausnya agak lebih amis dan encer. Bentuknya jadi kayak lumpur. Heh!
Abis dari situ kita pindah tempat. Cari dessert. Pilihan jatuh ke Häagen-Dazs. Biarpun udah kenyang, ga tahan juga liat eskrim berbagai rasa. Demi menjunjung hidup (agak) sehat, pilihan jatuh ke 1 scoop raspberry dan 1 scoop mango sorbet plus potongan jeruk dan strawberry sebagai topping. Yummy kan?

Waking Up Jap's Style

Forget about your sophisticated alarm clock, these peeps will definitely make you wake up! This is another prove on why we always find Japanese reality TV shows are the best!

Chicken in disguise

Probably what makes this restaurant famous is its chicken look like crabs.

Prawn & Ikan Asin

Those two are not directly related. I mean they are not swimming together in my lunch. No. Although they are found in the same location. Same market place, different stall. What am I mumbling about? Let's stop this.

OK. I picked prawn mee for lunch after circling around Pek Kio market food court. So many stalls offering good food. It took quite a while to decide. At the end I landed on this prawn mee stall, which looked quite famous. Numbers of peeps were having prawn mee from this particular stall. Plus there is a newspaper clip featuring the stall with picture of the aunty-owner smiling. Didn't know what it said (it was in Chinese!), but definitely talking about how delicious aunty's prawn noodle (otherwise they won't put it there, right?). So I gave a shot. And it turned out great. The prawns were fresh and sweet, the soup was a bit spicy. But the service was not top class. In the picture the aunty was smiling, but yesterday she didn't. She was a bit impatience knowing I didn't understand Chinese, plus struggled to understand what she said... I think she prefered the chitty-chatty uncle behind me, who ordered 3 bowls of aunty's noodle.

Now the ikan asin. On the way back (to catch a taxi), we passed one dried goods stall. And we saw 2 salted fish hanged in front of the stall. Honestly I've never seen any salted fish this big. See it yerself! Compare that with the uncle standing next to it... See what I mean? Imagine how many bowls of rice to finish one bloody ikan asin?

Whistling Birdie

Grave's whistling bird to accompany our Juicy Salif.

WC2006: Auf wiedersehen!

It was over. 5 weeks of intensive football matches was closed by a dramatic final in Berlin.

And the results were: Italy lifted up the trophy again after 24 years. German duo-strikers received awards: Podolski as young player of the tournament and Klose as top scorer with 5 goals. Buffon took the best goal-keeper, eventhough he didn't able to save any of French's penalty. While Zizou was named as best player.

The final itself was full with dramas. 2 goals in the first 20 minutes, Italy was 1-0 behind after Materazzi fouled Malouda inside the box. Zizou converted penalty, before Materazzi levelled with a header from a Pirlo corner. The match went extra time.

Within 2nd period of extra time Zizou was red-carded after head-butting Materazzi in the chest. This was odd. Apparently Zizou was losing his coolness after the two had exchanged words with 10 minutes left of extra time. At the end Italy won 5-4 in penalty shoot-out. After Trezeguet missed his, Grosso -who put Germany out in last minute in semi- scored the winning penalty.

So, life comes back to normal cycle. No more 3 am matches. No more jeering, cheering and disappointing-sigh from our next door neighbour (yes, they were watching too!). At least until Euro 2008 start.

WC2006: The Host Takes 3rd

Germany seized bronze after edged Portugal 3-1. Bastian Schweinsteiger was hailed as the man of the match after scoring 2 long range goals and induced the other goal, as Petit deflected in his free-kick in to Ricardo's net. Poor Petit, he was in for Costinha in second half. And Klose had to satisfy with 5 goals, same number of goals as 4 years ago. This also a farewell match for Luis Figo and Oli Kahn. Both showed great performance, as Kahn made several saves and Figo feed Nuno Gomes for Portugal's only goal.

4 goals in 45 minutes, definitely worth staying awake...

WC2006: 6:01

6:01 is the number I saw on my mobile screen. 6:01 morning. Shit. It did mean that the alarm didn't work. Or I forgot to set it on. I turned on the telly, but it was over. Screen was showing a reply interview with Claudio Reyna talking about USA preperation. Dang! Missed the 2nd semi!

But thanks to modern techology, in seconds we knew who will play on Sunday. Azzurri vs Les Bleus. Blue vs Blue. Definitely I'll make sure that the stupid alarm is on.

Crepes for lunch, Choco for dessert

Yes, that's what we had today. I picked crepes with bacon and tomato, while she had shrimp seafood as filling. And in the end she thought that mine was better. We agreed that both were not fantastic, but ok. And they came in quite big portion.
Then (not right) after that we went to this chocolate cafe to try its fondue. Fondue itself refers to French Swiss communal dishes shared at the table in an pot over a small burner. Remember the scene in Asterix in Switzerland? It showed bunch of peeps sharing a pot of melted cheese. That's fondue. But this fondue is not with cheese but chocolate. Sliced of apples, banana, preserved prunes, marshmallows and biscuits to be dunk in to one pot of heated dark chocolate (we prefer dark choco from other chocolate). To give an extra tangy flavor, the bittersweet dark choco came with splash of orange juice. Hmm... yummy, but when we finished our fruits, we felt sooo full... machtig!

Drinking Grass

Remember that greeny grass sitting in plastic container at juice counter in nice-clean-air conditioned-mall? It said one cup is equal to X kilo of veggie, full of vitamins and fiber... bla bla bla... (and for you that never try this before: it tasted like grass, bitter and yucky). And since the benefit of this grass is sooo great and peeps like it sooo much, the healthy drink also comes in can! Yep, and I tried it. It called Grass Power, with one pink-strong-muscled hand and long & thick green wheatgrass image printed in its can. The drink is green (as expected), tastes like grass, but sweet. Sweet like soft drink sweet. Well, if this drink delivers the goods of wheat grass, definitely its sugar content makes it even.

further info on wheatgrass, go to: http://www.benefitofwheatgrass.com