Gathering @ Watami !!

Met up with my poly friends for dinner and passed them my invites for our ROM. It has been quite a while since we last meet up after the CNY. Dinner was supposed to be at a nice zi char place opposite The Central, but we only found out that it was closed on Sunday on the day itself. A last minute decision to dine at Watami.

Look at the amount of food on the table !! =p
A great feasting session !!

can't wait to start the feast =p

12 yrs of friendships and still counting !!!!
hmm..... did i juz reveal our age??

Helena seems to be in doubt =p

lots of "Liao" for Shabu Shabu !! =p~

The Sashimi tat was not so fresh. Perhaps they have lots of leftovers due the people's fear of Japanese Seafood? The sweet shrimps was not sweet at all, have weird taste instead.

Eyes fixed on the Shabu Shabu =p

Synchronised act ??? =p

Food was average for the nite but great company makes up for it ! Hope to have another session soon. And looking forward to a short trip with all of you !! =)

Two Fat Men (I do not mean us ! =p)

My Gal and I were at Parkway Parade shopping and short-listing the electrical and household appliances for our house. The Best Denki and Harvey Norman @ Parkway Parade seems to have one of the most competitive pricing that I have come across so far. Be sure to compare the pricing between the 2 stores and ask for in-house price, and you will be surprise.

After spending the whole afternoon at Parkway Parade, we headed to Two Fat Men along Upper East Coast Road for dinner as gal has purchased coupons online.

Two Fat Men is a small, cozy chilling place,
which serves a wide variety of beer with Thai and Western food.

Decos of crates filled with beer bottles on the walls

Ordered the Thai milk tea but it doesn't taste as gd as those in Bangkok. I am starting to miss the food in Bangkok !

Ordered Fish & Chip for my main. Not sure y did I actually chose this over many other food. The fish was over fried. It was hard and dry. The fries as well. Regretted ordering this =s

The Tom Yam soup was one of the nicest dish for the night. Sour and Spicy, and it was not diluted. The seafood was fresh.

The wok fried glass noodles was pretty oily and plain

This was suppose to be the star attraction of the place, but it was pretty disappointing. The meat was not slice thinly, hence it was quite tough, hard and dry. The sauce was nice though.

the food seems to be a lot for 2 people

I was taking photos of the food and place without any pressure until one of the waitress suddenly appear in front of me and told me the food will look more natural without the flash. But the place was way too dark. I tried taking without flash, increasing ISO, reducing shutter speed, it still looks terrible and grainy.

And the waitress approached me not only once, 3 times to be exact. Stress si me, maybe I look clueless with the dslr? In the end, my gal told me to ignore the gal's instructions, juz take whichever way I comfortable with =p

Maybe she's a blogger as well? =p

Confirmation of our ID !!

After months of searching, we had finally settled on our ID for our home renovation. It was not one of the cheapest, but it was the one who are able to give us the assurance and security.

It was no easy task choosing an ID. Visits to the showrooms, sitting down with the designers, speaking to them and ask them for foc space planning & quotations, etc. Despite being top of our shortlist, we actually went back to them 4 times before we decided to sign up with them.

The 4th visit was on their official opening of their new showroom, where there are further perks upon signing up with them. On top of that, we were actually interviewed live on radio by a local deejay, who was covering the event on that day. Hence we won a further discount. If only they can throw in a free golden retriever as well ! =p

Looking forward to decorate our new house! Wonder how it would turn out in 4 mths time =)

Kim's Birthday Celebration

All the 4 couples gathered today to celebrate Kim's Birthday in advance at Sushi Teh, Raffles City outlet. Though many were staying away from Japanese food, we could not resist it ! =p

The dinner started at around 8.30pm and all of us were very hungry. Juz some random shots of the food. Nice platter of sashimi which consist of salmon, amaebi and scallops, but the amaebi taste weird. It was not sweet at all and it was not fresh. The squid was very smelly and i do not like it =p We order some sushi rolls and the must-order chawanmushi too.

The birthday gal with the very nice cake from The Patissier !!!
Guess the price of the cake

Nic: Errr gal...... R u cutting the cake or playing with it??
Carrie: I enjoy cutting the cake ! =p

Roy: Do you know how to cut the cake?
you are spoiling the expensive cake! =p

Close-up shot of the delicious cake from The Patissier

ok, pls let me cut the cake instead =p

Carrie: Baby, Arh....... let me feed ya .....
Nic: Hai..... you give me the bigger slice again.

Gal only had eyes on the strawberries !!! =(

The very sour fruit that everyone avoids ! =p

Food Tasting Session !!!

After our appointment with HDB, we headed to my aunt's house to pass her our invites for our ROM @ Chua Chu Kang before heading to One Rochester for our food tasting. Seems like we have almost covered the entire Singapore. Tired from all the travelling.

For the food tasting session, we were allowed to choose 8 dishes from the list:

1) Soup

2) Antipasti - Marinated Prawns and Squids, Tomato Mozzarella, Basil Marinated Mushroom and Olives Roasted Bell Peppers

3) Smoked Chicken Salad with Sweet Corn and Tomato

4) Smoked Salmon with Traditional Garnishes

5) Braised Beef Short Rib with Root Vegetables

6) Oven Baked Cream Dory with Thyme Veloute

7) Wok Fried Mixed Vegetables with Mushroom

8) Assorted Financier

What was a food tasting session for 2 persons turned out to be a shock to us. The quantity of the the food is amount to for 4 persons ! As the place was pretty dark due to a heavy downpour, I was not able to capture all the dishes. Most of them were either too dark or over-exposed. It didn't turn out nice and i gave up. =p

The Marinated Prawns and Squid. Not bad, but the squids were kind of tough and hard. We had a hard time whether to comment on the squid, for we fear it would turn out to be too soft or "nua nua" on the actual day if we mention it was hard.

The Smoked Chicken Salad with Sweet Corn and Tomato, one of the dishes I like best for the nite. Also, one of the first dish to finish too! =p

The Tomato Mozzarella and the Basil Marinated Mushroom.

The Smoked Salmon with Tradition Garnishes and Oliver Roasted Bell Peppers. The Salmons were fresh and tasty, but we didn't really like the Bell Peppers. Not sure if most of our guests would actually like that as well, hence we requested it to be change to a Cold Potato Salad.

The yummi-licous Oven Baked Cream Dory !! All soft and juicy but it was way too salty! Imagine for a person like me who is very "Zhong Kou Wei" to say it's salty.

The Braised Beef Short Rib with Root Vegetables. Not too sure if the short ribs are suppose to have the strong "beefy taste". Too strong to our likings. We had a hard time to find the right word to comment, and we eventually seek help from the waitress.

The fun thing was, the waitress knew what we were trying to say but she did not know how to put it in words as well. In the end she consulted the chef and we were told by the chef that it is call "strong beef taste after taste" =p

Wok Fried Mixed Vegetables with Mushrooms.
This dish looks like a Zi Char dish ! =p

Finally a shot of us with the food ! =)

Done with all the feedback.
Hope the food will turn out well on the actual day.

Collection of keys !!!

My gal and I took leave as we had an appointment with the HDB, to collect our keys! Finally after 2 years plus of wait, our house is ready !

Couple of things to do during key collections. Or rather, it's pay and pay time. The whole process was pretty fast. Perhaps it was a weekday. 6424, could this be the winning number in the next few 4D draw? =p

In possession of our house keys !!

Now that we have got the keys to our house, it's time to settle down for a ID for our house and shopping for the furniture and electronic appliances too.

Lots of big events for both of us this year: Our ROM, House Furnishing, Wedding Banquet, and lastly our Honeymoon. We need plenty of cash !! Any chance of a short windfall !!??!!

Our Wedding Bands

Earlier on, we had went to Vivo City to collect our rings. After waiting for almost 3 mths for the fitting of the rings, and another 7 days for the engraving, our wedding bands were finally ready for collection !

A sneak preview of our wedding bands =)

Mini Feast @ Fika Cafe

After we have collected our wedding bands @ Vivo City, gal wanted a mini feast. Since she has bought dining coupons for Fika Cafe, we decided to settle down for our dinner there.

Fika is a Swedish Bistro located near Haji Lane, along Beach Road. According to my gal, it was quite a popular cafe with nice food and cakes. Other then the food at Ikea, I have never tried Swedish cuisine, and all that was in my mind was the meatballs ! =p

cosy interior deco .....
I like the all white furniture.....

gal's juz so in love with picnic basket ....
I still remember i owe her one picnic trip ....

Well, the place was definitely packed !

Gal with our wedding bands.....
Another tick on our wedding checklist ....

Gal ordered a new flavor tea. Suppose to be sweet with floral taste, but it seems bitter to me instead ! Not my kind of tea. And the color of the tea was something like ribena? =s

Speaking of Swedish cuisine, the first dish that came to my mind was the Swedish Meatballs. Probably due to the influence from Ikea. I was struggling between pasta and the meatballs but i ended up ordering the meatballs, simply because I'm in a Swedish cafe.

At first, i kept thinking if i will be full, cos there were only 8 meat balls. After eating the 5th ball, I'm struggling to force the meatball down my throat. The meat balls were nice, initially. As i move on to my 4th and 5th meat balls, i started to feel quite jelat. Think i will be staying away from meatballs for quite some time.

Gal's Grilled Salmon. It was quite tasty and i like the sauce. It could be better if it is not tat dry. Believed the Salmon was slightly over-grilled, hence most of the moisture in the salmon was gone.

Gal with her Salmon .......

.......... and me with the balls ! =p

Our dinner would not be complete without the desserts. Therefore, each of us ordered a desserts. This is gal's choice. It's way to sour for me, especially the berries on the top !! =s

I love my Raspberry Cheesecake !!!! Very nice !! For definitely the choice for cheese lovers !!! From the photo, it seems to resemble a raspberry pie or ice-cream perhaps? =p

All smiles with the desserts =)

Please let me eat my cake !!! =p