Hot in the City

Today, Miss Mo and her 2 college friends, A and J, had lunch at Raku, a Japanese restaurant on Greenwood Avenue.

We had the $59 buffet, which we could order anything on a specified menu. The sashimi was very fresh and the other dishes were very good too. However, the waitress who served us was really black-faced. She had an attitude that we shouldn't be ordering too much if we couldn't finish. Hmm...

But I'd go back there again for the food but that would be before a trip to Hanabi which A claimed is equally good too and with better service.

OK, I finally did it. I permed my hair. It is called Japanese perm, according to my hairdress. Right now, it's still curly but eventually, it is supposed to look like that (that's not me). I'm still not used to looking at myself with curls but I've had praises so far.

Last Saturday, Miss Mo and Swedish Meatballs went to the Asean Cup semi-finals at the National Stadium. Since it was going to be the last game to be played at the stadium and there has been so much rivalry between Singapore and Malaysia teams, Miss Mo didn't want to miss this golden opportunity to watch a live game. She asked around but only Swedish Meatballs could make it.

I had known about it happening on Saturday but procrastinated, thinking that it'd be pretty easy to get tickets. However, by Thursday, when I finally decided to go irregardless, the grandstand tickets were all sold out and the gallery tickets were selling like hot cakes. On Friday, I quickly summoned my dad to go all the way to Jalan Besar stadium to get 2 tickets. Kekeke! Sure enough, it was reported on the radio early afternoon that all tickets were all sold out prior to the game. Phew!

The traffic to the stadium was really bad. I was late for 10 minutes but it was alright. The atmosphere was great. The stadium was filled up with sea of red! We managed to find 2 seats behind one side of the field. The spectators were mainly families so the mood was really good. When the players were playing badly, the spectators scolded them. We even did the kallang waves and roars. It was really nice!

Malaysia scored first in the 2nd half but at the near end of the match, Singapore came back with an equalizer. Even during extra time, Singapore failed to score. Alas, the Singapore goalie blocked the final penalty during the penalty shootout and Singapore finally won the semi-final! The whole stadium was electrified! It was so good to be there.

To avoid the traffic getting out of the stadium area, we decided to stop for a drink before leaving. We came upon Cosy Bay, which Swedish Meatball said his friend claimed to be romantic. No lah, it wasn't romantic at all. It was just a very laid back bar with pool tables and it served beer and finger food. We (or rather he) had a jug of beer with soccer on the tv screens. It was quite nice there since it was on the water. Nice apartments there too. We then decided to go to George's tavern at Siglap since it was near his place. It was a also very laid back bar, like those neighborhood bars. We talked some more.

It was past 2am and we both agreed that it didn't feel like it. It felt like it was still before midnight. LOL!

Last Friday, Miss Mo finally had the chance to check out the Broth restaurant on Duxton Hill with her lawyer dudette, J.

The last time, I was at Duxton Road was with Superstar. We strolled along Duxton Road and was quite put off by the sleazy-looking bars which had neon lights. However, the Broth restaurant was situated on Duxton Hill, a short stretch of shophouses that is closed to traffic.

We had a table along the corridor of the restaurant. The weather was cool so it was nice to sit outside, except we were kind of close to this group of 20-something pretentious people who were pretty loud.

I ordered a glass of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc. The bread served was fresh and crispy. The starter we ordered was white pepper snails baked with spinach and mushrooms. It was delicious! For entrees, J had the NZ monk fish and I had the lamb loin cooked medium. However, when I tasted it, the lamb was so tough that it was like chewing rubber. I never did it before but I had to reject the dish this time and fortunately, they were nice enough to give me another similar dish, now cooked to my requirement. For dessert, we had the supernova pavlova with fruits. It was indeed superly huge. Too much for a dessert.

Overall, I would recommend Broth restaurant. there is even a vegetarian menu for vegetarians. How thoughtful.

My girlfriend sent me this link. For those getting married, please don't be caught in this fashion!

http://tinyurl.com/yq5ony

Today was Miss Mo's first day back at work after a short business-CUM-leisure trip to Beijing, China's capital. It's been more than 10 years since my last visit. Beijing has changed so much in my eyes, too much!

I stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which was very grand by standard. It's connected to the Oriental Plaza, this posh mall that has all the elite brands, which some of which are are not evey found in Singapore. I was highly impressed. The second floor are all the Chanels and Guccis. The first floor are the Mangos and Zaras. They even have Mudd! It's a must-visit mall for future visitors. It also have a food street that has Starbucks, Breadtalk, other restaurants and this foodcourt which I thought has a very appropriate name.

The hotel is just right next to Wangfujing. I took a stroll in the evening in the cold. It wasn't that cold actually. There wasn't much happening on this street. I thought the mega mall was much more interesting.

Alas, I came to this brightly-lit side street and the vendors were selling the strangest things on skewer sticks. Yikes! People actually ate those!
I also visited the Tiananmen. Not the square; it was too big and I was too lazy and it was cold. Tiananmen still looked as majestic. Like my pictures?

I then proceeded to the Forbidden City. It hasn't changed much since my last trip more than 10 years ago. Alas, the famous Starbucks was no longer there. Apparently, the governement decided that it was conflicting to have Corporate American in a Chinese monument. I found the Forbidden City boring this time. It took me about 2 hours to complete the tour. I decided that it was time to head to Silk Street shopping mall!

Shopping's really great at these fakey-cheapy places. The bargaining made it even more fun and gave me a sense of achievement when I got the price I haggled for. I got a 'Prada' bag from 600 rmb to 150 rmb. I finally got my Tokidoki bags too for 30rmb. Cheap!

Here are some funny pictures to share with you guys.

SupaStar & Young Master got invited to a pool side party at this Mandarin-speaking Belgian, Pommes Frites' house-warming on saturday night in the east part of the island. We arrived pretty late around 10ish and i guess some people had already left. Funny thing is no one was really in bikinis given the fact that it was a poolside party!

Anyways, we saw familiar faces like the Mandarin-speaking French guy, French Fries and the girl we met at the Xmas party J, and it was her birthday party as well. We found out that French Fries also speaks Nihongo and so we can't wait to start practising our Nihongo with him, and ok, he also does habla Espanõl too! Oh KimChi girl was there too! No sign of the Swedish Meatball. There was also this black dude B from NJ, ok Miss Mo should have been here to chat NJ with him. He's one of those people from the US that you won't expect to see in Asia, those in the 'burbs and indulging in Booty-Calls. Also met this bald Brit and this Chinese girl C whom Pommes Frites likes to chat with in perfect Beijing Mandarin. Some other group of girls who think they are like super model type, forgot all their names except one, were just puffing away "in style" and "posy". There is this cute Vietnamese guy V who was born in Paris, he reminded me of the gay Asian guys in NYC...but Young Master insisted he is not gay.

Shortly after the "supermodels" and V left, the rest of us went upstairs to Pommes Frites' new abode. It was funny since the apartment was kind of bare and reminded of how we lived in the US when we were students.

J suggested we play a game since everyone was sitting around in circle. I think we started to cringe a bit..erm..games? The game, turned out to be quite silly, each of us had to make a statement and those who are not in agreement of or have not done it, had to drink up. And B and J, who were acting intimate all these times, said it has to be something risqué. GULP, i heard Pommes Frites sitting next to me asking " Does it always have to involve sex in the topic?" So yep, the entire night was filled with such statements which sometimes led to discussions. One funny one was, someone talked about Oral sex, Pommes Frites had to raise his question again. "Can someone define that? If one part is used or both parts used, which counts?" LOL

We also observed the Brit was really kind of ham-sup, he was like ogling at KimChi girl who again was in super mini shorts. He said he would want to learn the Thai and Korean languages, when he said Korean he was like looking at KimChi from head to toe then from toe to head *yikes*, we think he's the kind who goes to Thailand for "fun".

The game got tiring as time went by and all the alcohol was gone. Pommes Frites fell asleep in his sofa and we thought we should go, it was 3am.

Sigh! It's been pouring for the past couple of days. Despite the rain, Miss Mo decided to check out Bollywood Veggies. I wouldn't know that this place exist if it's not from my friend's MK's recommendation. M stumbled up this place while he was riding in the area some time ago. He just got a new GPS system so he wanted to use the new toy to get to Bollywood Veggies!

This was actually my second time to Kranji. I went to Sungei Buloh a few months ago and I really liked Kranji a lot because it is like the kampung. We went by the Lim Chu Kang way and we saw lots of cemeteries along the way. If it wasn't for MK and his GPS kick-@ss toy, I wouldn't have located Bollywood Veggies.

We had lunch at Poison Ivy Bistro. This restaurant cooks everything organic and the vegatables are all natural, from the gardens at Bollywood Veggies. I dont' know why but we didn't try the vegetables! We had curry chicken (no coconut) and prata! The curry chicken was really not bad even though there wasn't any coconut milk. The prata was so-so. We had lime juice (delicious!) and coffee.

It was a really laidback place and I'm not allowed to tell anyone where this place is. So if you guys want to go, please let me know as I'd have to seek MK's approval. After all, he was the one who discovered this place so I should give him some credit.

Has anyone been to Hillview before? Until yesterday, I have not! I had a bbq at Hillview Greens on Hume Avenue. Where the hell was that??!

I managed to find my way pretty easily to Hume Ave. It's a pretty wide hilly road that have condos lined along both sides of the road. Hume Park I, Hume Park II, etc.

Hillview Greens was at the end of the avenue and the complex was huge! There were many blocks and it had the usual facilities eg the big pool, bbq pits (many), tennis courts, gym, etc. I didn't really like it because it reminded me of living in a hdb estate. Isn't it the same, just that it's gated and there are facilities but the people are the same?

Anyway, I didn't like Hillview Greens. I know it's supposed to be more posh living in a condo but I didn't feel like that.

Last Friday, after a long wait, Miss Mo finally had the opportunity to check out the new (not so new now) St James Power Station.

We first went to Dragonfly, the Canto/Mandarin Pop club. This place has bands that play Cantonese and Mandarin songs and the famous (and old) William Scorpion sings there too. We were there a little before 9pm and the place was nearly packed! I guess it was because there was no cover and drinks (except champagne!) were 1-for-1. The band was not bad. But the most interesting part were the people there. They are very old bengs and lians and they are not very good looking. There were even senior citizens! I would go back there again to people watch. Upstairs from Dragonfly is Mono, which is a posh-cheena KTV bar with rooms. Very nightclubbish with towkays singing. Interesting too.

Then we went to other clubs at St James like Powerhouse, which was oh not so happening. We went to Boiler room there, which was a pub with these 2 middle-aged ladies singing. One of the singers twitches her face whenever she sings long notes. So funny! My guy friend, CC, said his favorite was the Boiler room because of the girly band but the ladies were bad. We passed by this outdoor swing area, that would look nice on a nice day but it was pouring that night. We went to Movida at the end and that was the best, I would say. They had a band from Paraguay playing. The costumes they wore looked 70s and there were a few people doing salsa on the dance floor, obviously showing off their moves from their lessons. I think I'd go back to Movida again for the music.

I wouldn't purposely go back to St James again but it's so near my workplace so who knows, I may drop by there for a drink one of these days again.

After recovering the 'lameness' of being stood up by FU (formerly known as Christian Slater), Miss Mo survived and was out and about last Saturday evening.

It was Miss Mo's grandpapa's 90+ birthday. I don't really know how old is he but I know he's 90+ and very old. I wonder how it feels to be 90+, you know. We went to Peach Garden at Novena for dinner. There was a mini celebrity spotted. He was the grouchy judge from Singapore Idol, Ken something. Guess who spotted him? It was the Indonesian maid. She watches Singapore Idol and even CNN! Not bad, eh?

After dinner, I headed down to Emerald Hill to meet Joel, this Swede I got to know from watching EPL. Wait, I guess he has been introduced in a previous blog. I expected meeting the same people whom I met at his party but no, it was a completely new crowd, except for this old SPG called Julie. Julie was at the party but I didn't remember seeing her there.

Anyway, besides Julie and Joel, there were another Julie and Nish, from the US, Krause from Germany, John from Finland, Carlos from Spain. It was a change from hanging out with Singaporeans, not that the Singapore company is bad. It turned out that Nish used to live in Hoboken and just a block from me. How coincidental! I thought it was also interesting that there's a Finnish guy in Singapore. Maybe he works for Nokia!

We went to Clark Quay next since some of them wanted to check out the new place called Cannery. We stayed a little at Bungee Bar and Nish said that we should all go to an amusement park. I was like 'hmmm.....I don't think there's a six flags anywhere near there.' Joel and I just hung out at Bungee Bar watching a little soccer. Apparently, Joel claimed that he was pretty serious into hip hop when he was younger. Hmm...White blonde guy doing hip hop!

Hurrah, it's another great friday! Whoever invented fridays is a genius -- it is the most awaited day of the week! Likewise we continue to design another program for this evening, with the intention of (a)getting to know more hip places in Singapore so not just regular places; (b)enjoying ourselves during the course; (c)hangin'and chillin' out with the peeps that we love.

The lovely evening kicked off at Chang Korean BBQ. Christian Slater decided to abandon ship just under 5 mins of wait, kinda dampened the spirits of Miss Mo a little. I thought it was sort of lame too. We decided to call him FU and that kinda helped uplifted Miss Mo a bit.


The signature Korean BBQ aroma was lingering around the compound, though i thought the interior was sort of bare like as if they were trying to look modern but didn't know what to do with the space. Whatevers, so we went into our room and very aptly YDD & her koibito made their grand appearance. So Miss Mo's guess was spot on! koibito = TK Tan!

Ok, back to ordering food....I tried to order bulgogi, kimchee chigae, kimchee jaeyook bokkeum which is stir fry pork with kimchi, but the manager said they cook the bulgogi inside the kitchen (ok fair enough) but they didn't have the rest - WTF! We were choked with shock. Never heard of a korean restaurant that does not have the basic stuff...i guess having lived in NYC (or SF for TechnoCoolie) for a fair bit, we do have certain kind of expectation and standard for ethnic foods like that.

Anyways so we ordered the Ginseng-marinated beef, a Wagyu beef and a bacon for BBQ, shared a seafood soon doboo and a vegetarian bibimbap for our vegetarian soon-to-be Mrs TechnoCoolie. Our verdict: Not good lah! The beef all tasted the same -- tasteless!! and too small a cut; the bacon was far too thick i insisted, the soon doboo was quite thin too there was no kick. Even Mrs TechnoCoolie said her bibimbap suck! We started reminiscing how we used to wolf down the kimchi soon doboo & BBQ Kalbi at the Fort Lee korean joint in NJ. WA~~~i really miss NYC now....WA~~~


Despite the less than mediocre food, the company was great, even though soon-to-be Mr+Mrs TechnoCoolie refused to reveal how the proposal happened. YDD was sharing her Hokkaido trip with us and we got to meet TK Tan, which you can read about on YDD's blog. She brought some oishii Hokkaido chocolate-corn cookies that definitely was the hightlight of the dinner, and that saved the night, i must say!

Next we moved on to OOosh, we thought the receptionist was kinda bitchy, she was like, with a snort: "sorry tonight full, you got to make reservation next time" Shitty attitude. I remember her name N_DIA.

So we decided to check out the other place Hacienda, but we like had to walk around the compound braving hanging cables, muddy grounds and deep drains, in the darkness! It was an ok place, most of the people there we realised were rejects from Oosh. It was a nice night with the full moon and kinda cool after the rain to be sitting outside. The TechnoCoolie couple then revealed their wedding to be held on my birthday. Miss Mo and I started to give them concepts of various wedding ideas since they are not doing the usual thing. One good one was since this is going to be held on April Fools', the guests will arrive to have to realise that there is no wedding at the said location, they will be given clues and will need to perform tasks. The first 20 to arrive will be allowed to celebrate the rest will be barred outside having to watch from a tv screen. Of cos this is all inspired by Amazing Race...kekeke...

Over all we had a fun night because of the company. TK Tan despite new, was really loose and comfortable, we thought YDD might be too shy...kekeke, RELAK LAH! :) We will continue to search for the real Seoul food in the coming months, with two recommended places already by local Korean expats. Keep checking in!

Due to lack of dates during the holiday season, Miss Mo decided to concoct a combination of night spots for the evening and invited the former Astorians and Fort Lee resident out to enjoy the 'menu'.

We first went to Coffee Bar K, which is located at UE Square. It's one of those old men's bar which you've seen on tv, where the bartendars wear tuxedos and any kind of cocktail can be made on request. We had Yamato-san as our bartendar. For Young Master, he had a Remy Superstar, kind of a girly-looking drink. We had the Titanium, which tasted like Mojito with champagne, created by Yamato-san.

The bar was empty when we went because we were there at 7pm, before dinner. The seats were so cushy and it wasn't smokey at all. The Astorians even practised Japanese with Yamato-san! We all love the place and said we would definitely pay Yamato-san a visit (the following week).

We then proceeded to Sapporo ramen Miharu at the Gallery Hotel. We couldn't locate the restaurant at first. We asked this sweeper uncle in the hotel. He said 'Oh, that noodles place??! It's outside lah'. Funny! The noodles were great but the broth was too salty for our taste. We were so hungry that we still ate the whole bowl of ramen. Delicious!

AFter the departure of former Fort Lee resident, we tried to locate Nihonshu, the sake dining bar which we were supposed to head to. Alas, Nihonshu has been defunct. So we went to En Dining Bar instead, which we liked. The decor was normal but somehow we liked the feel of the bar. The funny thing was there was a menorah in the bar. Did they know it's jewish?

We went home before midnight but yet we had a great time checking out new places to hang! We are doing it this Friday with Christian and YDD!

Christmas came and went a little too quickly. After the Christmas holidays, Miss Mo went back to a quiet office and counted the days to the end of 2006. Meanwhile Superstar and I were busy sourcing around for programs on New Year's eve.

We decided that all else failed, we'd go pay $38 and go to Zouk for the countdown. Miss Mo got invited to a party at Joel's whom she doesn't really know at all. But hey, at least there's a party to go to!

We had the privilege of having KQ with us on New Year's eve. How nice! We were saying the last time the 3 of us celebrated New Year's together was the millenium! Time really does fly! We went to Chinatown for dinner at the Soup Restaurant. Delicious chicken and soup with matronly service from the waitresses.

We then proceeded to Bar Sa Vanh on Club Street for drinks while waiting for Young Master to arrive. I didn't really like that bar, pretty pretentious.

We had a little difficulty locating Joel's apartment on Siglap Road but thanks to KQ, we managed to find it with ease, but it was 11.30 and we only had half hour more before 2007 arrived!

The place was packed when we got there. There were different kinds of people there. First, there's the host, Joel, Swede, still sober when we got there. There was the hot S'porean mother, Catherine, who looked 20s but is a mother of 3! Then there was Charlie, S'porean who works at PSA, who said our Mandarin was very bad. LOL! Then there was Walter, this Belge who speaks Mandarin and Spanish! Of course, there was Tibault, who's from Normandie and can speak a little Mandarin too (these people!) and was looking lovingly into KQ all the time. LOL! Of course, there was Diane, a chubby girl, who knows Brett, whom I used to work with. She said she was going to New York and was thinking of doing the SATC tour. Her US office is in Hoboken but she thinks Hoboken is boring. WTF! For someone who hasn't been to Manhattan, shut the f'k up! C'mon, she was wearing a white t-shirt with thick green stripes! Oh, there's this vegetarian Indian guy, who went around shouting 'Ladies and Gentlemen, it's thirrtee minutes to 2007', with the music blasting some Abba song! Oh, KQ was busy talking to this strange girl Jan. But Jan gave us some drinking groups which we intend to check them out.

Of course, there was abundant alcohol and there's
laPhroaig. Superstar and I were busy tasting it. Kekeke!

So it was a pretty fun party after all. Hello 2007!

Miss Mo and SupaStar wish everyone a really HAPPY NEW YEAR and lots of wonderful things to bestow on everyone who knows us. :)

Since it's the start of all things beautiful, we decided to launch a new skin for this blog...still working on details to suit our picky taste, so, erm...please ignore the odd blue colors since we are still trying to decide the best colors....Meanwhile, please feel free to comment!