Life Sucks

With a name like that, one will expect a restaurant helmed by an authentic Italian. But no, instead there is a home grown Chinese chef behind the kitchen and not just an ordinary Chinese chef but a celebrity Chef at that! Chef Neo must be so confident of his cooking that not only did he choose to do Italian dishes but he set up the place in the most ulu of places at a teeny weeny little road in Yio Chu Kang that is so off the beaten track that I had to use my gps to get to the place. And his confidence show in some of the unusual items he has on his menu . For starter,  we ordered the Funghi Portobello which is fresh portobello mushroom baked with crab meat, ebiko and prawn finished with rich gorgonzola sauce. M wasn't really that hungy so she ordered the Zuppa di Mare which is actually a Seafood Soup concocted with prawn, clams, mussels, squids in spicy tomato sauce, white wine, basil leaves. She said it tasted like tom yam soup. I had the Spaghetti alle Vongole...

The rats at Bukit Batok have been hogging the headlines for the past week. The authorities and pest controllers have been blaming the people there for the infestation. It seems the people have been feeding the stray dogs and the leftover food have attracted the rats which it seems is enjoying life there. Of course the people who are feeding the dogs are denying that the problem was caused by them.. The way I see it, the rat problem at Bukit Batok is the same as the monkey problem at Bukit Timah, the stray dogs problem at Punggol and other places and the crow problem at food centres. What they have in common is that all these are caused by us human.  Like the monkey problem, we human have encroached into their territory. While that would have ordinarily driven them further into the remaining forest, we human decided to feed them. And when the monkey got used to human food and human presence, they start to move into our area and the conflict with human then begin. Ditt...

Probably the last of its kind left in Singapore, Chin Mee Chin Confectionery or CMC as it is popularly called in Katong is a old style Hainanese coffee shop serving beverages and bread served the traditional way.   Inside the 2 old style glass cabinets are trays of freshly baked buns Authentic custard tarts. And custard buns. These are good. Soft and the custard literally oozes out. And they sell kaya too. Sickeningly sweet kaya. Damn shiok but don't eat too much though. Its really really sweet. Its most famous item has to be the butter kaya bun where instead of the usual 2 slice of white or brown bread, the kaya and butter is spread onto a sweet bun. And we not talking of a small thin slice of butter either. It is a thick thick slice right on top of the kaya which is spread on both sides of the bun. Yummy. Another hot favourite of theirs is the lucheon meat bun but it was not available on this occasion. Go try it if you in the area. B...

Other than the usual fish and chips and Italian food, I didn't really know what was good and inexpensive. But hailing from Singapore, a lot of people had told me about this place Burger and Lobster and so we dutifully found our way to out of its outlet one day. Everyone was raving about this place and we were warned to go during off peak so that we didn't have to wait too long. So we went after 2 pm and still ended up waiting nearly 40 minutes for a seat. The joint only serves 3 items - a steak burger, a lobster roll or a whole baked lobster. All the items were priced at the same price of    £ 20 Since we can have burger everywhere, we went for the lobster. I had my steamed while M had hers grilled. The lobster comes with a side of fries and some salad. Was it worth the wait and worthy of the hype? Hell, if I am going back there again, that will be my first stop for a meal!  Another place that we were told is a must try was surprise surprise - Chinese food...

After a long haul in Scotland, we finally made it to London, the last stop before we fly back to Singapore. By then, I was tired and the glam of London wasn't really my thing. I wanted to go Stonehenge, Kew Garden but the schedule we had didn't permit us to go that far and we had already been to 2 gardens so another one seems a bit overkill. In the end, we did the tourisy thing and went on a open top bus ride taking in the sights of London. And I swear this is the best way to see everything at one go. The bus route covered all the major tourist attractions and we could hop on and off wherever we choose but because the priority was shopping, we only gawked at most of these places from the outside. We also .took the Thames river cruise which comes with the bus trip so we covered all the places: Trafalgar Square The most famous of them all - the London Eye with the County Hall next to it. The Tower Bridge which I think is the most magnificent bridge I ever seen...