Starfish Cactus

My neighbour has a really awesome green finger. He has a few potted plants outside his flats and most of them are blooming amazingly well. His pitcher plant is always blooming. And recently his star flower cactus came out with a flower.

I did a double take when I saw the flower the first time round. At first I thought it was a fake but after a few days when it was still there,  I decided to take a closer look and photograph them. 

This is the star flower cactus

And this is the beautiful flower. Too bad it was facing downward and I did not want to disturb it.

But then hor, I think it has already dropped off. It looks they the owner hung it back on.

Or is it supposed to be this way. It sure look very natural to me especially from the front.

So is it going to open up or it has opened out already and is now closing?

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

Been to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve a few times but not been able to get some decent pictures until this latest outing. The real purpose was to catch a glimpse of the 3 metres long crocodile but unfortunately after covering almost 2/3 of the place, all we sighted was this creature and its siblings. 

Me think it is the year end holiday seasons and the croc which Npark said came overseas from Johor and is therefore a FT, had took leave and gone home for the holidays.

No crocs but plenty of birds. Managed to took some nice photos although I don't know what birds they are other than the general description.

I think these are plovers. 

An egret?

A heron?

A yellow billed stork?

A white collared King Fisher

Common Redshank?

M also spotted this caterpillar. I am still amazed at how she can see things like this. I could have walked past without a second glance

And these caterpillar has a Chinese Dragon like feeler. Amazing!

And these lot. I think they are a bunch of caterpillars but they look more like a tarantula.

This was the most productive trip to Sungei Buloh so far. Hope to come back soon with a little bit more time and cover the rest of the other route and take more pictures.

Grub

I think the last time I had a burger was like 2 years ago. So when I was looking for a nice place to eat and came across this place, I decided I must go and check it out. The setting at Bishan Park was of course the clincher.

We reached before 7 pm but it was already packed. Signs that the food is good? We were asked to key in our particulars on a tablet at the entrance and we will be contacted via sms when our place was available. The staff said about 40 minutes wait. Bump:( but we were at Bishan Park so we figure we could kill the time by walking around. But 5 minutes and 50 metres away from the entrance, while we were admiring the natural filtration pond, we got an automated call that our table was ready! Lucky we never change and went for a run instead. 

The place is quite smallish. A small air condition section and another equivalent size outdoor area. We were given a table outside which was fine with me since it was a lovely evening.

From what I read in the reviews online, their speciality is burger so we each ordered a burger. I had the pork burger while M had the cheese burger. Both look identical and comes with a side of fries. 

The bun looks a bit artificial. Maybe we are used to the soft buns from Mac and Burger King. It was a bit too hard for my liking. But the pork patty was good. It comes topped with apples and some sauce called chimichurri. At $13.00 for a burger, this is to date the most expensive burger I ever had. 

But one burger for me certainly wasn't enough. Luckily, I also ordered something else that was highly recommended online. The slow roasted pork belly. 

That the pork belly on top of mashed potato and a mango sauce. This cost $15.00. I have no doubt the pork belly was well roasted. It looks good and taste good but it was totally fatty meat and even me a pork knuckle lover had to back off after half of it. M took only 1 small cut of it. Maybe that the way it is supposed to be?

Anyway, according to Grub website, the place offers responsible eating and sourcing meaning they source the ingredients from green and environmentally friendly producers and they cook their food with only natural ingredients ie no msg, preservatives, flavouring etc which explains why the bun looks and taste like that.

They have a wide selection of interesting looking beers but unfortunately since I was driving, I had to desist :(

A cool place to hangout if not for the small place and crowd which means it won't be nice to sit, drink and talk cock while there are many hungry people waiting for a table.

Prego

I heard of Prego for many many years. But I just didn't feel like paying big bucks to eat pasta and pizza when I can have the same at much lower price. But I was curious to know how it survive for so many years when a lot of other places had came and went so finally we made a trip down.

It was a mid week lunch time and we didn't make any reservation. I didn't expect the place to be full. After all, I passed by a few time and the place look very big. But I was wrong. It was fully booked! The apologetic staff asked whether we mind sitting at the high chair area. So okay we thought we gave it a try. We quite like the view from the high chair so when the staff came and told us there was a cancellation and she could move us to a proper table, we decline the offer and choose to sit where we were. And so we managed to take this photo of the place.

I like the setup very much. There was a big long bar counter and an antipasti bar. And many many tables all of which were occupied. The food has to be good!

The cheapskate trio of us ordered a soup, a salad, a mixed platter of meat and 2 pasta. That was it. But it didn't come cheap though. These 4 items set me back by $150.00. I could have the same thing at a hawker centre for a fraction of that but of course it was the atmosphere and the Italian cook's (I think) skill that we were paying for. And the super polite and friendly service. Service incidentally was a bit slow - I guess maybe due to the crowd.

The platter of mixed meat comprising 3 different type of cured meat. I must say I like the Parma ham very much.

This is the Paccheri which is actually lobster meat in some sort of tomato sauce. The kid had this though so I didn't know whether it was good.

I had the Fusilli which was crab meat, asparagus in seafood sauce with Basil. Which remind me that I don't like the strong taste of Basil leaves. I didn't finish this dish.

M had the soup (sorry no photo - a soup is a soup nothing great to look at) and this interesing salad. Misto alla Griglia - eggplant, pumpkin, capsicum, walnut and rocket salad. Very unusual and interesting combination.

Overall I like the place especially the service. But I think I won't be back any time soon. There are places where I can have the same thing for much lesser but if anybody want to impress a date over a causal lunch or dinner - this is probably the place to do it without being very formal.