EATS BEFORE THE END.....

Yes yes, it has been insane, but I have resigned myself to insanity being the norm, and sanity making an occasional appearance. Life. A taste of the goodness of Cork is in order (best at the English Market, above). But Ireland is only slated for the summer. Siiiighs. Singapore's in the grip of this dengue epidemic, and its been long days and longer nights. We're just hoping and praying it doesn't get so serious that 1) one of us gets sick (touch wood), or 2) one of us can't get away for our planned break next month. The plan right now is to - if we finally graduate from the unending waiting list for flights - to attend Kishore's wedding in Bali. *Fingers crossed*. Anyways, Pete and I were inspired enough by food blog The Traveler's Lunchbox to experiment with the meme Five Things To Eat Before You Die. Its been done by everyone from Chubby Hubby and The Domestic Goddess in the aim of creating a Foodbloggers' Guide to the Globe. In any case, we've decided we will do it too, and we hope that you'll add your fav five in the comments section. Heck, death is the inevitable end point anyway, so we might as well be sharing the best and most gastronomically satisfying routes... So here goes... There's 10 between us (well, duh). Besides, while I completely agreed with Pete's five, I had a few others I simply had to include. 1. Poached to perfection eggs Benedict at Odessa, Dublin 2, Ireland. You haven't lived till you've tried this one, especially with their great homemade Hollandaise sauce. Had mine with salmon and the meal alone made the trip worthwhile. A close second is the poach eggs on toast at the Hick's Brasserie at Cotswolds House Hotel, Cotswolds, England. Amazing stuff. 2. Banh My Pate, or pate and baguette, flavoured with pickled cucumber, coriander and chilli sauce from a streetside stall in Saigon. The old lady near Ben Tanh Market is oh-my-god to-die-for good. The French would freak out. Now wouldn't that be fun to watch haha. 3. The crispy fish salad at Song Trang, undeniably the BEST restaurant in all of Saigon. The greatness of this dish even escapes description. The only problem is that its so popular now that you have to book a table like waaaay in advance. Ah well. (Make sure you try the lemongrass escargot as well, its phenomenal). There used to be one in Singapore, but it came nowhere close to the real one. Ask any local where to find it coz its kinda off the usual tourist radar. While we are on the topic of fishy business, the seared black cod at Brasserie Wolf, Robertson Quay, Singapore, is divine. 4. Anything at all from The Stinking Rose in San Francisco, California. Just follow your nose to this one. Its all garlic, all the way. Apparently, they serve something like 3000 pounds of the good stuff a month. Amazing stuff. The garlic dip with the bread was smashing. For a main, I had the Garlic Encrusted Baby Back Ribs, which were phenomenal. Pete had the 40 Clove Garlic Chicken, though he still complains it didn't quite have enough garlic. Madness. Quite fortunately, of course, both the boy and I love the pungent stuff, so it doesn't cause any, erm, tension. Ha Ha. Checked out the most recent menu and they now have a "Roasted Garlic Potato Onion Soup". And if anyone out there has anything close to a recipe, PLEASE PLEASE share. 5. Hainanese Delicacy for its chicken rice, top floor of Far East Plaza. Been eating there for yonks and finally introduced it to Pete earlier this year. We are both chicken rice fanatics, and anywhere else has since paled in comparison. The oyster sauce veg is great, second only to the salted vegetable soup. 6. Crubeens (crúibíní in Irish). Wikipedia calls em salted pig's feet or trotters, boiled/braised, and best eaten with cabbage, and either mashed or baby potatos (Goodbye Atkins). Pete calls em heaven. Best after a few drinks. They are traditionally eaten using one's fingers - yet another link to these Indian-Irish union. Made to be together we are, I tell ya. While we are in the Cork region, the clam chowder at the English Market, Cork, Ireland, is one of those die die must try things. Great chance, too, to load up on real Irish salmon, black n white pudding and amazing cheeses. The stuffed olives from the deli are amazing too. 7. Seafood (especially the grilled and soyo sauce fish) in Hua Hin (where the Thai king vacations). The restaurants are built on old piers where the fishermen used to offload, and while we can't quite remember the name of the one we went to, it was the third one down from the end. The food was phenomenal and I am sure the name of it will come back to me at some stage. We kena scolded by the waitress too - she said our eyes were bigger than our (collective) tummies and we were ordering too much. At the end of the day, we just let her pick and were happier for it. Only downside to Hua Hin - its a bit of a trek to get there (even though its only a couple of hours outside Bangkok). Its well worth it though, and it means a lot of the trash-tourists are nowhere near. Heaven. Closer to home, I would say a near second best would be the soya sauce whole fish at Ubin Seafood. at the Bukit Timah and 6th Ave junction. I have no idea what its called on the menu, but its done with ginger and spring onion. Pete's throwing in a third contender - the kopitiam across the street from the office that I only know as Wy Wy's Grandfather's Coffeeshop (Thanks, Alison). If you're familiar with the neighbourhood, its in the same block as Aroma but on the other end. Not bad at all for something near enough to work. The wait for a table can be endless, though. God, I am getting hungry. 8. Soto Ayam from a streetside stall in Bali. Words simply escape me. It's just different. Don't ask, just try. Two places come to mind, both of which I don't have names to. First one is near the Bali Hyatt in Sanur (Walk towards the beach, turn right, 100 metres down. Its the one with the blue sheet of canvas over it. If lazy, the soto ayam served by the hotel's Indon restaurant to the poolside passes the test) and the second one is near the Santika resort in Tuban (get out to the beach from the resort - oh, and the restaurant bordering the beach is Ooh-la-la too - but anyways, turn left and take a stroll along the beach. About 100 metres down is a restaurant on the beach front. It actually fronts a backpacker/budget hostel area. Very good stuff and the only cheeseburger in Bali pete gives three "beers" to. Considering how particular this boy is, that is generous). Try. 9. Samosas and coriander-mint chuntney at Rita's Kitchen, East Coast, Singapore. Don't bother asking for the address. This one's Mum. :) Haven't met a samosa or chutney I can take seriously other than hers. Revolutionary. I mean, at least one son-in-law wanted her samosas as dowry instead of anything else- and got it. Another son-in-law kicked himself for not being able to do the same at the risk of sounding unoriginal. Need I say more? Other dishes that stick in the mind - Mum's chilli fried rice, serve with fried chicken winglets, fried lady's finger doused in masala, and homemade yoghurt. Yes yes, a fried frenzy, heart attack in a plate, whatever. Awesome. Another one that comes to mind Mithi Loli - a kinda sweet crispy pancake, which Mum spoiled me with when I got chicken pox. Why, I have no idea, but it sure sweetened a shite period in my life. Oh, and mum's rice cooked in dahl. And finally.... 10. Curry chips from Aroma II, Wexford Street Dublin. Note that these have to be eaten at 4am, when one is pissed enough to ignore the cold, and stupid enough to wanna walk all the way there when the bar is just up from the hotel. "One" (being Pete) also has to be smart enough to send one's wife in for the fine stuff, just so she knows what queueing with drunk thugs in a foreign land. The chips - or at least the first five (until they complied with Irish winter weather and got cold) - were good though. Sighs, I could go on.... I don't even have Chin Wah Heng's pepper crabs in there, or Bak Kut Teh, or Mussells from Brussells.... How can one only pick five/ten things.... Ah well. Okay, your turn. I'm already tagging Gnat, Wei, Ling , Jonno, and the independent-for-a-few-more-days Gene. Everyone else, please please do join. Hugs, TW Note: Some of the pictures on this post are from http://www.noodlepie.com/ and from the WWW. Those lovely ones of the olives and the English Market and such are Pete's though.. Thanks to all.

NEW WEEK, NEW LOOK....

So as you can tell, we spent a bit of our weekend coming up with a fresh look for the ole' blog, with a new specially customised masthead designed by non other than Boy Wonder Williams. It looks a bit cleaner I think. Bits of it will change more drastically as I start taking out some elements and adding new ones. Do let us know what you think. What you hate, what you like. At least we'll know that the effort means something to someone out there! But at least I am inspired now to put a bit more effort to it. I am still desperately trying to get my head around html and all the labelling stuff. I will. Erm, eventually. One of the things we were trying to experiment with was the photos/layout, but there's been a bit of the glitch with the files, so hopefully that will eventually sort itself out. Meanwhile, here's a taste of Pete's Chinatown adventure earlier in the week. He snapped it at one of the Chinese temples. Its one of those things they use to burn paper offerings I think: And since we're still on the topic of Boy Wonder, realise that I never posted the page that Pete won the SND award for. Here it is with the citation. I'm not sure how it will look sizewise, but I have to say its one of my (many) favourite pages he has done. How can I not gloat? Oh, we also discovered a FABULOUS place this weekend. Erm, okay, discovered is the wrong word because Carl and YP pointed us to it (thanks guys!) - Graze at Rochester Park. I hear the Sunday brunch is brilliant, but we ended up there for Sunday dinner instead. No regrets though. The setting is amazing, food superb and service excellent. Actually don't have a bad thing to say about it except that the prices on the wine list are kinda saucy. But this is Singapore, where bars get off charging the world for alcohol. Still, we were very satisfied. The lounge at the end of the restaurant was showing old black n white films, which was a nice touch. Would be a great event venue. Menu recommendations: The stacked eggplant as a starter was absolutely brilliant. I had the avocado cheese salad thingy that I cannot for the life of me remember the real name off which I polished off completely. It was that good. I had the whole baby fish with sambal (bit chicken rice type chilli, but not bad) as a main and Pete had the pork chops, which were huge and really well barbequed and still juicy on the plate (from Pete: Fantastic criss cross and golden on the outside, but juicy on the inside). We were both quiet for long enough for anyone to know they were both amazing, though the mass potatos were a bit humm. But Pete's Irish, so potatos not done perfect are always already questionable. Was too full for desert but the menu looked out of this planet (note to self: do not eat before going to Graze again). We topped off the night with Pete's virgin foray to St James Power Station. Bellini Room was closed, which was a bummer, but we got in a few at Movida, which was all salsa, and Powerhouse, which was playing, well, the more upbeat stuff. Caught up with a couple of friends and my one of my fav cuz', which was loads of fun. Will definitely be back there sooner than we think. Oh, in other news. We are now proud owners of a *drumroll* grilled sandwich maker. Don't laugh. I swear I have always, always loved grilled ham n cheese sandwiches, something for which Pete has a weakness for too. Mum use to make fabulous ones in a silver-and-grey one that has since gone rusty (it is, I suspect, older than I am). Anyways, while we were out today, there was one that was simply too sweet to resist. It makes grilled and toasted sandwiches, toasted pastries and grills veges, sorta like a BBQ. Of course, the first thing I did when we came home from dinner was suggest we make ham n cheese toasties for supper. My hips will never forgive me, but it was oh soooooo good for the soul. Tomorrow morning, BLT toasties for Pete, Nat and me. Might as well cash in when enthusiasm is able to triumph over morning-time grumpiness. Heck, it may even make us feel a wee bit better about being at work. Art

FLIGHTLESS IN FRICKING ASIA...

Sorry for the radio silence. Just back from a work/supposed-to-have-been-short-holiday thing in Bangkok. Bushwhacked. Explains why you have not yet seen the promised photos from Ireland/England which now seems forever and a half ago. Sorry. In other news, Bangkok did not quite go as, well, planned. Got there, worked my butt off, and got the stories done. Never saw the outside of the UN building or the hotel room, but ate nothing but Thai food and managed to get a decent number of stories off before Sunday morning when the man was meant to get in so we could have a nice two-plus days together. Meant. To. Get. In. In what felt like a horrible mish mash of Tom Hanks films, here's what actually happened. He got off work at 2am Saturday, and since he had to leave for the airport about 3 or so hours later, decided he would simply stay up.... So there was poor ole Pete, sleep deprived after a harrowing week. Anyway. So the boy gets to the airport, checks in, goes through the usual waiting-for-a-flight motions. Gets to the gate. Gets on the plane. The plane - Thai Airways, no less - leaves the terminal, taxis to the runaway, starts down it with an (apparently) awful, air-leaking kinda sound before it ends up turning around, with the pilot announcing that the plane ain't going nowhere thanks to "hydraulic failure".... @*(&*(&(^$)(*#%(*((*)(#$ So the boy and other passengers that have connections from Doha to Munich to catch get spat back out, when they are told (I am not kidding) that Biz class will get put on SQ, and the rest have to "fend for yourselves, or wait for our next available flight". which turns out to the half a blinking day later. According to Pete, it was nothing short of mayhem, with the airline not even offering a dang meal coupon to them. Either way, he waited around, and got updates that ranged from "it will take an hour and a half to fix the plane", to "we are bringing in a plane and it will take four hours". He tries to see if there are other flights, but no, nothing. Flights are full. Argh. The boy was, of course, as grumpy as someone who is stuck at an airport because their plane has "hydraulic blinking failure", and I decide to try and see if he can just go home and crash, and I'll come back instead, since I am sick anyway - but no, no dang flights are available for that day from Bangkok. He's stuck in the terminal and can't get to BKK. I'm stuck in a hotel can't get to Singers. The plane, as it were, can't get nowhere. At least not while its dripping all kinds of shite onto the tarmac. Double argh. So what was meant to have been a three day break for us, turned out to be a one-long-nap and one-busy day. Sigh. Ah well. The trip had its (few, but pleasant) moments. Deciding on the Hyatt Club proved to be a great idea - great location, brilliant service. Pete finally managed to get in close to 5pm (which put an end to the Chatuchak idea). We had a short nap and then hit the lounge for sunset cocktails before hitting Suan Lom Night Market to shop a bit. Ended up getting Thai street food in an Italian restaurant after (don't ask) and then both conceded defeat and went back to the hotel to chill and see who'd crash first. Had a nice lie in the next day and chilled at the hotel before hitting some of the swanky shops in the vicinity. Then we had a lovely Thai-Chinese meal in this really cute streetside restaurant that was amazing, thanks to Satwant (thanks babe!) and did a wee bit of shopping in Silom, before parking off for a few drinks at a bar with a live (lip synching) band. It was, coincidentally, right across from a strip bar called, aptly, Supergirls. Decided against going in for the show, but did get shown the extensive "menu". Will resist going into details on what is, decidedly, meant to be a NC16 blog, but they involved ping pong balls, flame throwng and the creative opening of beer bottles. You know the sort. Eventually ended up finally at a pool hall when I got my ass royally whipped on the table by lasses in five inch heels and two inch skirts. After three games I think my ego was sufficiently bruised to concede defeat and head back. It wasn't quite the usual Bangkok getaway. No endless shopping. No cheap massages. Still, it was nice. I think even if all you do is chill, sleep and wake, there is definitely something therapeutic about doing it somewhere other than home, when the cell phone isn't ringing/beeping off the hook and you're not going to bump into any one you know. Looking forward to our next PROPER break though. Art Ps: Yes, the rest 0f the vacation photos from Ireland will come now. So let's kick it off with Birmingham. Enjoy. Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

RUB A DUB DUBAI...

kay, so I have been bad. Work has been insane... Life even more so. But we're starting to get hatemail over pictures promised and not delivered, so here goes, instalment number 2. Non-chronological, but seriously, are you really fussed? This one's the furthest from the first it can get - Pete's (21st) birthday pitstop in Dubai on the way back home. Shall not even venture to try and describe the state we were getting in, but needless to say, we didn't let it get in the way of hitting the dunes hours later (literally). Thanks to the Reuben and the gang at FTC, we were kitted and sorted before we could say "cure". Kinda appropriate then that we were stuck in a GMT time warp between St Patrick's Day and Pete's Bday because we had every excuse possible to be somewhat trippy yet gagworthy when we were coming down a slope at a 180 degree angle in a four wheel drive (I have new respect; note to Dermot and Mary from Pete: 4WheelDrives can do more than cart home truckloads of groceries... Really!?!). The. Dunes. ROCKED. Okay, so I will admit I got a bit green. Pete did too! But of course, the biggest challenge to our egos was Rajveer, the 6-year-old that belongs to Reshma and Ranjit (our ex-neighbour and single malt-kaki), who came along, and was COMPLETELY unfazed by 12-storey high dunes that had me begging for the mercy of anything or anyone who would listen... Sighs, to be young and fearless. I was too roughed up when we got back to the desert camp to brave the quad bikes, but I had a great time with the camels while I waited for the boys. Wait. That sounded very wrong. Ho Hum. But really, it was awesome (and would have been even more so had we not been completely hungover and jetlagged). Pete's already booked himself for a trip back... next week preferably, he says... Caught up with long lost cousin Mehirr and his fiance Amna, as we already mentioned.... It was really really great fun, especially since the last time I saw him was when I was 12 (which was, like, oh, maybe, erm, less than a decade and some ago....).... Very very strange but also oh so cool. Hit the city two nights in a row, had great food, good drinks, bought brilliant spices. And before the nights were through managed to find ourselves on national radio (one of half a million things he does).... They played a couple of songs from Kal Ho Na Ho (to anyone who was at our wedding, it was, like, the recurring theme - the songs the kids all danced to) dedicated to Ravi (Pete's, erm, Indian name) and Arti Williams... It was utterly hilarious. Okay, so enough of the rambling. Here's a peek into the mayhem.... Much more to come in the next 48 hours... Really! No, really! Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com Hugs, Art