Sunday, December 28, 2008

Eastward bound

Have you ever had the feeling where you set your eyes on something for the first time and fell in love then and there? I had the exact same feeling when I first saw this area of Singapore. That was more than a year ago. During the course of the year, this love and fascination was strengthened considerably due to my frequent visits to this area. Somehow or the other, I would end up going there almost every weekend. The fact that I used to reside on the opposite end of the country didn't deter me at all.

Ever since I confessed my fascination to the place, she has been telling me to move there at every single oppourtunity which presented itself. Given the fact that the area has an abundance of restaurants, it is of no wonder that I would gush about it whenever I went there. The best part of the place was its proximity to the beach. Just a short 15 min walk away. I have always loved the beach and can spend the whole day next to it. Staying in a place like that where I can wake up early on a sunday morning(Stop that eye rolling! I can get up early if I want to!!!), take a brisk walk to the beach, spend some time sitting next to the shore and head back home after breakfast (Yes, I wholeheartedly believe than an outing is not complete until I eat outside) has always been a dream.

So, a couple of months back, we started searching for a house in this area (which is in the east). Looking through classifieds, calling up agents, viewing houses kept us kind of busy is the last one month (and that is NOT the reason I have blogged less. I was just plain lazy). And then the whole "love at first sight" happened again when we saw a lovely apartment. We decided to rent out the place almost immediately and were doing bhangra or to be more specific, we were going Tanah Merah Tanah Merah (my friends had become more obsessed about it than I was, Buhahahaha!!) in our heads. But the owner decided to think about our offer and told us that he would tell us the outcome by noon the next day. We were a bundle of nerves by noon next day and were literally jumping with anticipation each time the phone rang or a message was received. Finally, after many such 'false jumpings', we finally got the good news. It was such a relief. We couldn't wait to move in.

The much awaited day came and we moved in amidst much excitement. It took a couple of days to sink in that we live in the east now. Now that it has, here is a list of things which explains why the new house rocks and why we are so head-over-heels in love with it.
  1. The beach is just a 20 min walk
  2. The whole set of restaurants that I spoke about earlier is just a short 5 min bus ride away.
  3. Changi airport is just a 10 min taxi ride away. Yipeeee!!! No more of the hour long journeys to receive/drop friends/family at the airport.
  4. The new house is clearly the best house compared to all the ones that I have stayed in all my life.
  5. It is huge with plently of light and air.
  6. My room had got huge windows. The absence of building next to ours ensures that we don't peep into other houses and vice-versa
  7. From the dining room and my room windows, I can see flights approach a landing. Just a couple of days back, I saw the A380 approach a landing. Wow!
  8. The lady at the western stall in the food court nearby asked me if I wanted "Veggie burger" when I ordered a "Chicken Burger without the chicken patty but with a hash brown". I think I almost cried!
  9. There is an Indian shop nearby who sells fresh coriander amongst other Indian items. This came as a very pleasant surprise. I don't have to frequent trips to Mustafa Centre.
  10. We finally made this a reality.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Whacked out!

There is a MRT station in Singapore called Tanah Merah. Whenever I hear that name, I feel like putting both my hands up in the air and rotating my palms like I am screwing a light bulb into place. No, seriously!

Am a total whacko! I know.

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Music Tag

Urv has "tagged" me with a music related tag (Actually, he hadn't. When I saw the tag on his blog, I jumped up and down three times screaming "I wanna do this tag! I wanna do this tag! I wanna do this tag!". The dude had no other option but to tag me. Hehehe!)

Here are the rules -
1. Put your music player on Shuffle mode
2.
For each question, press the next button to get your answer
3.
Write the song name no matter what
4.
After you've answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and let them know they've been tagged.

If someone says "Is this okay", you say?
Chori chori chori chori dil le gaya haio rabba haio rabba le gaya

What would best describe your personality?
Pappu can't dance saala! (I really cannot dance)

What do you like in a guy/girl?
Keh doon tumhe, yaa chup rahoon, dil mein mere kya hai

How do you feel today?
Tu mere samne, mein tere samne, tujko dekhoon ke pyaar karoon

What is your life's purpose?
Tauba tauba ishq mein kariya (Hahahaha!)

What do your friends think of you?
Chak de chak de chak de chak de saare ghum

What do you think of your parents?
Zehreelay zehreelay, kaale neele peele (OH GOD! Noooooooooooo)

What do you think about very often?
Adaa aaye haaye adaa hosh udaaye adaa karde deewana (*wink*)

What is 2+2?
Jaane tu meri kya hai

What do you think of your best friend?
Sunnewaalon, sune aisa bhi hota hai, dil deta hai jo, woh jaan bhi khota hai

What do you think of the person you like?
Dil kya kehta hai mera kya mein bataoon, tum yeh samjhoge mein pagal hoon

What is your life story?
Yeh, tumhari meri baatein hameshaa yoon hi chalti rahe (talk about stability)

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Dhoom tana tadum tananana dhoom tana tadum tananana dhoom tanaa (Errr... Aren't I supposed to be grown up by now? No, I don't have any intentions of becoming a dancer)

What do you think of when you see the person you like?
Yeh ishq haai, jannat dikhaye

What do your parents think of you?
Meri laundry ka ek bill, ek aadhi padhi novel

What will you dance to at your wedding?
Hanging with the girls in the weekend, trying to have a laugh and a good time. Why you calling me and stressing?

What will they play at your funeral?
Tu tu hai wohi, dil ne jise apna kaha, tu hai jahan, mein hoon wahan, ab to yeh jeena tere bin hai sazaa (Oh! I am so flattered)

What is your hobby/interest?
Tu bole glass aadha khali, mein boloon aadha bhara (Hahaha! That makes me look like a alcoholic, doesn't it?)

What is your biggest secret?
Aaoge jab tum mere saajna angnaa phool khilega

What do you think of your friends?
Kabhi kabhi Aditi zindagi mein yunhi koi apna lagta hai

What should you post this as?
Chala chala chala, mera jadoo chala. Hua hua hua, kuch toh mujhko hua (Try to take a guess which movie this song is from)

What do you think about this tag?
Maahive mohabbataan sachiyaan

There, am all done with the tag. I would like to tag Sash. She has a very impressive music collection btw. And also Pixie, who loves to do tags :P

Also coming up next is an account of my recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Yet another holiday...

I am of to Vietnam and Cambodia for a long pending holiday! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! I have been :D :D :D since the past couple of days. Will be back in a week. Till then, all you children behave ok? ok.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The friends I have...

Presenting, exhibit 'A' - Shu-bhe-ray

Me: Yen re, tiffin-giffin aayitha? (Had tiffin-giffin?)
Shub: Tiffin aayithu, giffin aagilla. (Ate tiffin, but not giffin)
Me: Yaak ree? (Why not?)
Shub: Ghee illa maneli. (No ghee at home)

Yes, I know you all want to give her one whack on the head! Don't worry, I will do so on all your behalf!

Oh! This post was taking revenge for this post.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

One Year Later....

14 September 2007. I landed in Singapore to start a new life. For the first time in my life I was going to be staying by myself. I was going be leading the kind of life that I was dreaming of for quite a while. With lots of hopes, excitement, travel, the feeling of not knowing how I will cope up by myself. Far away from familiar surroundings, family and close friends. Not that I didn't have close friends here, but you get what I mean.

It has turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. The freedom that I have, to do what I want and at whatever time I want is one of the things that I am most thankful for(apart from cheesecake). From loafing around the town at 1am, cooking exotic looking stuff, looking around for amazing places to eat, shopping to my hearts content, loads of oppourtunity and like minded company for traveling to new places, stress free commuting around the country, hurting my leg and not being able to walk around, coping up with the change in working style, to watching almost every hindi movie released here. One heck of an experience it has been.

I still feel the same way about this country as I did when I first came here. It still takes my breath away. Although, one thing that I miss is the feeling of anxiety and awe. The first month here was full of the unfamiliarity feeling that I get when I go to a new place. The excitement in discovering something new, the feeling of how I am going to cope up with this change in environment. Add to it the awe of everything around me, from sexy roads, disciplined traffic, absence of horns, to an extremely well organized system. Now that it has been a year, the anxiety and awe are hardly present. I miss that!

A big shoutout to all my friends here without whom, my life here would never have been as interesting and fun as it currently is.

Oh! Today is the third birthday of my blog. 3 years and 100 posts. Hoping to increase that number and the frequency of my blogging in the coming year. Did I just see someone roll their eyes?

Sunday, August 24, 2008

The 'S' factor

Recently while talking to a friend of mine, I realized that, all the people with whom we used to pull her leg with had their names starting with the letter 'S'. Another friend joined us and I also realized that many of the people she had fancied(that I know of) had their names starting with the letter 'S'. I was laughing in my head at this phenomena and was wondering whether they find out the persons name, and start to fancy them only if it starts with 'S'. I was thoroughly amused. And that is when it struck me! All the people whom I had fancied when I was in college had their names starting with 'S'. Holy Cow! :O

What is with this 'S' phenomenon? I mean, are all people whose name starts with 'S' very fanciable? I don't even know if that is a word (Dear Editor, Help!), but you get the meaning right? Is it because the words 'Sexy', 'Sophisticated', 'Smart', 'Stylish', 'Successful' start with 'S'?

How many people have you fancied whose names started with the letter 'S' ?

PS: This is the 100th post! A century! Yaay!!! :D

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Tagged!!!

Urv has tagged me with the Unspectacular Quirk tag. Here are the rules of the tag followed by my quirks.

Rules -
  1. Link the person who tagged you.
  2. Mention the rules on your blog.
  3. Tell 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
  4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
  5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers' blog, letting them know that they have been tagged.
Quirks -
  1. I get royally bugged when I see e-mails/text messages which start with the word "hai". Its "Hi" for godsake!! Aaargh! Don't ever expect me to reply, if I ever get a message starting with that non-word.
  2. When ever I keep money in my wallet, all the notes have to arranged from the highest to the lowest value and kept with the front facing upwards and upright. Also, the notes cannot be folded over the edges. Else, I don't get sleep at night.
  3. When I wear lenses, I have to first put the lenses on for the left eye and then followed by the lens for the right eye. I never wear otherwise.
  4. I hate it when I see travel bags with airplane baggage tags still on even after a couple of moths of undergoing the journey. YOU, yes YOU, remove that SQ airline tag from your bag. I know it is still there.
  5. I just cannot work on the PC with more than 5-6 windows in the task bar. I get very disoriented.
  6. Whenever I go to a restaurant, I always study the menu and take my own sweet time for that. Once I am done, I am very confused on what I want to eat.
There, I am all done :D

I have no idea whom to tag as the people whom I would have probably tagged have already done this tag.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

My Favourite Restaurants

Visiting Singapore and don't know where you will get vegetarian food ? Cannot decide where to go for dinner ? Well, let me help you. Listed down are some of my favourite restaurants in Singapore.

Modestos
An italian restaurant. Had blogged about it earlier here. My first love (if I can call it that) in Singapore.
www.modestos.com.sg

Marche
Awesome food and amazing Swiss market theme. I just LOVED it! And they have hot cross buns!

Lemon Grass
They best Thai food that I have eaten outside Thailand! I just cannot wait to go there again.
www.lemongrass.com.sg

Bread Talk
Oh! Its a treat for bread lovers! I was so taken in when I saw this place the first time and two and half years down the line, I still feel the same way. I literally drool whenever I pass in front of their outlets!

Cafe Iguana
The best Mexican food that I have had in Singapore. Overlooking the river and situated in the very happening Clarke Quay, its a must visit. Very colourful paper napkins. I just don't feel like using them.
www.cafeiguana.com

The Soup Spoon
Wonderful soups which you can make a complete meal out of. For the vegetarians they have the following soups - Roasted pumpkin (highly recommended), Meatless minestone, Tangy tomato and Mushroom. Also worth trying is their mezze platter!
www.thesoupspoon.com

Cafe LeCaire
Yummy Mediterranean food! The 'babaghanush' in particular requires special mention. Did you know they make them from eggplants ? I had no idea!! :O
ww.cafelecaire.com

Green Connection @ Melleos place
Chinese vegetarian food. Lots of emphasis on organic ingredients and healthy food. Just the place to visit for all those people who are vegetarians but would like to try some local food!
www.melleosplace.com

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Guilty of Shopping ?

Have you ever shopped a lot and felt guilty about it later ? Have you ever accompanied a friend on their shopping trip and ended up spending more than him/her ? If so, then welcome to my club!!

Its not the first time that such a thing has happened to me. A couple of years back, I accompanied a friend who wanted to buy a pair of pants for his birthday. I had absolutely no intentions of shopping and tagged along as I didn't have anything else to do. I ended up spending four times more than him. As much fun it was when I went on that impromptu buying spree, I felt quite guilty later on buying clothes that I really didn't need at that moment. But it looks like I hadn't learnt anything from that. Fast forward to last Saturday. I accompanied Shub, who wanted to do some shopping at Vivocity (one of the mega malls in Singapore). In the end, I spent five times than more than what she did.

Whoever said that "Shopping is a national pastime in Singapore", knew what they were talking about. Visit any mall in Singapore in a weekend night and its gonna be crowded, inspite of the fact that there are a lot of malls. Its so easy to get tempted to buy something. Most of the stores have some sale or the other going on. Its sometimes hard to not give into the temptation. So, that brings us to the question - How do we overcome this feeling of guilt ?

Well, I happened to have realized a very simple method for not feeling guilty after an impromptu shopping spree. It is specially designed for people who use credit cards a lot and get a heart attack when they see their credit card statement at the end of the month. Yes, you can now shop guilt free.

So this is how it works - While making a credit card payment before its due date, you "accidentally" pay more. For ex, as per your card statement, you have to pay 600 dollars. You "accidentally" pay 1000 dollars. Note the emphasis on accidentally. As you have paid more, nothing can be done about it other than - YES! Shopping. There is nothing to feel guilty about spending 400 dollars as it is already pre-paid. And your statement for the next month will say zero dollars. Brilliant no ? *wink*

The inspiration for this idea is my dear friend Shub, who by mistake (an honest mistake, not an "accident") made payment for her credit card twice! Way to go woman! Now go and shop all you want! Are you asking me what I want as a gift ? One iPod Shuffle will do ;)

Saturday, June 14, 2008

I can't think of a title for this

I just finished watching Jab We Met (for the third time) and I like it even better than the last time I saw it. In particular, I just love the scenes in the movie where Geet makes Aditya to burn the photo of his ex-girlfriend to help him get over her and later when Aditya makes Geet call up her ex-boyfriend and hurl abuses at him. Such kiddish behaviour, but it so works! Its so amazing that such a silly thing can actually make us feel better.

Talking of silly things, I did one such a thing today and I feel like I have conquered everest! As I had previously mentioned, it is a bit hard to find vegetarian food in Singapore. Everyday when we go out for lunch, I see most of the people eating a kind of noodle soup. Given my love for trying out new things, I so want to eat that. One major problem though. None of the places serve it veg. Its mainly a non-veg dish. Damn! Every afternoon, I look fondly at the dish wondering where I can have something like that without turning into a non-vegetarian. And then it struck me!! I can very well make it at home. It is one of the simplest dishes to make. Just boil the veggies and noodles (I used spaghetti) together and Voila!, the dish is ready. It was such a contented feeling! It was like telling "So you think only you can eat it and I can't. Look what I cooked. Hah!!!". The PizzaDude has the last laugh!!! Buhahahahaha!!

See, such a silly thing and it makes me feel like I have overcome a big obstacle. It was totally one of those feel-good moments.

PS: Yes, I realize that the first and second paragraphs are not exactly related. I sat down to write a very meaningful post and how awesome I think the movie is. But, somehow it ended up with food. :D

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Just Wondering

Of late I have started to wonder, if we get along great with a friend of ours and have similar tastes and interests, should we start considering this person as someone more than a friend ? You know, like a possibility of having a romantic relationship with them. At least this is what certain friends of mine have conveyed to me. While many have been teasing me about it, one of them actually sat me down and asked me to seriously consider the girl in question as a prospective life partner.

I don't understand one thing. Just because we get along quite well and have similar tastes and interests, why should we immediately start thinking about starting a romantic relationship with other? I mean, come-on isn't there something called as being good friends?
Can't two people of opposite sex who have similar tastes and interests, be just good friends and remain as that? Why should every great non-romantic friendship be thought up as a romantic relationship down the line? It invariably happens that way. It makes me wonder - Don't we want to have friends who like to do the same things as us? Just because the said friend is of an opposite sex, why should they be considered as prospective date?

Neither Bollywood or Hollywood seems to believe so :)

Saturday, May 10, 2008

A Grand Welcome

What do you do when a bunch of evil and scheming friends embarrass you when you come out of the arrival lounge of the airport, with something like this -


Yes people, yours truly was one such victim. You can read about it here and here.

I now declare full revenge on the brains behind this operation! YEAH!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Breakfast Buffet at Bossotel Inn

HOLY SHIT!!!! I have never had such an amazing breakfast buffet in my life. There was so much of variety and such yummy food. Whew!!! If we could marry a breakfast buffet, I would have then and there!!

During my recent tour to Bangkok along with Shub, Viv and Sayesha, we stayed at the Bossotel Inn. While booking, we had noticed that breakfast was included in the room rates. We had thought that it would mainly be bread, cornflakes, milk and juice. Neither of us were even remotely prepared for the variety which was available at the buffet! The weird part was it wasn't even Thai food (of which I have become a huge fan). It was plain and simple continental breakfast. All of us had eaten those items quite frequently before. But, we still drooled and hogged at the food like we hadn't eaten in days!!


Without much delay, let me present to you the items which were available for consumption -
  1. Fresh Vegetable salad with four dressings - Vinaigrette, French Vinaigrette, Cream and Thousand Island
  2. Plain fruit salad
  3. Yogurt - plain and strawberry flavoured
  4. Dried and candied fruit as topping for the yogurt
  5. Chopped almonds as topping for the yogurt
  6. Cut fruits - Pomelo, Pineapple, Papaya and MANGO!!!!
  7. Baked goodies - Butter Croissant, Danish Pastry and such stuff
  8. 4-5 varieties of bread
  9. Coconut jam, guava jam and orange marmalade
  10. Four varieties of cereal - Fruit loops, Muesli and corn flakes (plain and chocolate flavoured)
  11. Vegetables in sauce
  12. Pasta (Spaghetti and tomato sauce)
  13. Sausages
  14. Bacon
  15. Freshly prepared Omelette
  16. Grilled Vegetables
  17. Coffee, Tea and Milk (the choco-latte was very good)

I think when we saw this spread on the first day, we must have sat for atleast 2 hours at the table, eating and chit-chatting. After sometime, we were so stuffed but still couldn't help going in for another serving. During my second helping (or was it the third?), I was busy loading up my plate with some cut fruits when Shub comes to me with what looked like a cup of hot steaming tomato soup. I was quite surprised that I hadn't noticed it during my initial rounds (Yes, at a buffet I always do a survey of what all items are on offer before starting to eat). Although, I generally don't do soups at buffets, I was very much tempted to have tomato soup as it had been quite a while since I had eaten it. Although it turned out that it wasn't tomato soup, but tea. Yes, I believe some special Thai red tea. Shub, somehow didn't seem very impressed with the taste.

If you are planning to visit Bangkok and generally like a continental breakfast, I seriously suggest that you have breakfast at Bossotel Inn. The breakfast is not just for the guests staying at the hotel. I think the hotel was charging about 220 Baht for the breakfast. I say it is totally worth it.

Photos by Sayesha.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Bangkok at a glance

  1. Its just like any other city in India. Only the language and the faces of people are different
  2. Lovely temples. "Wat Arun" (Temple of the Dawn) in particular was awesome!
  3. The sunrise and sunset happens on the same time as in India unlike Singapore. In Singapore the sun rises at 7 and sets around 19.15-19.30, confusing me many a time.
  4. Thai food is my new favourite! It has such an amazing flavour. My mouth is watering thinking about it. You can read more here and I will be putting up an entire post on the lovely breakfast we had at the hotel.
  5. I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of finding vegetarian food. Although most of the dishes were not vegetarian, the chefs were more than willing to make them with only vegetarian ingredients. They also easily understood what is meant by vegetarian unlike Singapore and Malaysia where vegetarian food is apparently not referred to as normal food :O
  6. I have no idea where we get Indian food in Bangkok. Didn't even bother finding out! To all those people who say non-Indian food is bland and does not have any flavour, I have only one thing to say - Go to Thailand and eat Thai food. Ofcourse, its just called food there :P
  7. Was not at all impressed with the new Suvarnabhumi International airport. It was quite crowded. Changi International airport is way better in my opinion.
  8. The dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya river is a must do!
  9. So is shopping at the Chatuchak weekend market.
  10. Errr... was that a wooden dildo that they were selling in one of the roadside stalls ?
  11. Massage parlours are almost everywhere.
  12. Multi coloured taxis. I could spot green, pink, red, orange and blue coloured ones.
  13. The MRT, Skytrain and the river taxis are the fastest means of transport.
  14. Traveling by the BTS sky train is not exactly cheap.
  15. They have two-wheelers which serve also as public transport (speaking in a broad sense). You engage one of the riders and he drops you where ever you want to go. Ofcourse, you have to pay :P Such riders can be easily spotted wearing an orange sleeveless jacket.
  16. There are so many westerns touring Thailand. I had no idea it was that popular. I saw more Americans/Europeans that what I see in Singapore.
I shall leave you with this picture as a preview to what is coming up next.

Is the keyboard wet already ? *wink*

Friday, March 21, 2008

The Big Bang

Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! Off to Bangkok! :D

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Tagged with Crazy 8's

Pixie has tagged me with the Crazy 8's tag and here are the answers -
(Some of the titles do not have 8 items under them as I could not think of so many of them)

8 Things I am passionate about
Food
Travelling

F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Trains
Hindi movies

8 Things I want to do before I die
Drive a train
Skydive
Visit New York City
Visit Australia
Visit Europe
Learn Spanish
Learn to swim
Be able to play a musical instrument

8 Things I say often
Had blogged about it recently

8 Books I've read recently
The Kiterunner
The Fountainhead (not completed)
Atlas Shrugged (not completed)
Neither here nor there (not completed)
Lexicon of Pasta

8 songs I could listen to over and over
Title track of Kal Ho Naa Ho
Its the time to Disco from Kal Ho Naa Ho
Tumse Hi from Jab We Met

Sawan Barse Tarse Dil from Dahek

Bulla Ke Jaana by Rabbi Shergill

Zara Zara from Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein


8 Things that attract me to my best friends

Patience

A good conversation

Similar wavelengths

A good sense of humour

Gossip ;)

Love for food and travel


People interested to take up the tag are welcome!

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Marché

Marché is a restaurant in Singapore which has a local Swiss market theme. Its a lovely place and is the first time I am seeing something of this sort. Thanks to her for introducing me to this place.

The entire restaurant comprises of many stalls which are selling different types of typical Swiss food. They have bakery items, salad bar, Crepes, Pasta, Rösti, soup, drinks and lots of other things whose names I don't remembers. Even the waitresses are dressed like typical Swiss villagers. As soon as we enter the restaurant, the person at the counter gives a card to every one. Any purchases made from the different stalls are directly billed to the card. When we leave the restaurant, the card has to be surrendered and the amount billed to the card has to be paid. No hassles of paying separately at each counter. I felt it was a lovely concept. Must make a note of this.

The restaurant was so colourful and had ample amount of sunlight streaming in through its glass walled exteriors. Eating in this kind of atmosphere makes me feel very energized and not just because of the food. Its like a reassurance that I am eating food made from the freshest of ingredients. When I was in India and used to see food related shows, the cook used to always exclaim about using the freshest of fruits and vegetables. Some shows even used to show the cook/host going fruit/vegetable shopping to the local farmers market. I used to wonder, what the fuss was all about. Why all this fuss about fresh ingredients? Come on, we used to have fresh fruits and vegetables being sold almost everywhere, even on carts in front if our houses. After coming to Singapore, I can understand the "fuss" about buying fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, don't get me wrong. I am not telling that we get stale items at shops/supermarkets over here. Almost everything is imported. So the chances are very high that the fruits and vegetables that we pick may not have been plucked a couple of days back.

Anyway, where were we ? Oh rite, Marché. I started my lunch with a hot cross bun and a mango-strawberry smoothie. I finally ate a hot cross bun. Does anyone remember the nursery rhyme - Hot Cross Buns ?? I used to always wonder what it was and where it was available in India. Someow I forgot about it after nursery. I remembered it only when I saw it at Marché. It was so soft to eat with a slight sweet taste. Shub got a salad and a Rösti along with some sour cream. The Rösti tasted quite ok. It was made of shredded boiled potatoes roasted in a shallow pan. I am not a huge fan of potatoes. So the dish did not have a big impact on me. The salad was yummy though.

For the main course, I had a banana-mango Crêpe. It was amazing to watch the assistant prepare the Crêpe. She first poured some batter on a huge heated flat plate and then spread it using a T shaped instrument. She just placed the T shaped instrument on the batter and just rotated it few times. The result - an evenly spread out pancake. She then proceeded to put some chopped bananas and mangoes on the crêpe (just like the way the potato-onion palya is placed on a masala dosa) and folded the crêpe like a cone and gave it to me. I poured ample amount of chocolate sauce and a white coloured sauce (whose name I forgot) on it and sprinkled a generous helping of some raw sugar. came back to my seat with a cat-who-just-ate-the-cream expression. Heh! It tasted absolutely lovely but was quite messy to eat.

In the end, I was totally bowled over by the place. The best part was that it did not turn out to be very expensive. Will definitely go there again. Mr. HDS, you will totally love this place. A good reason for you to come to Singapore :P

Marché Restaurant, Level 3, Vivocity, Singapore.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Regularly Spoken

1. Oh my god! :O
2. Holy cow!
3. Yaaay!!!
4. What the .. ???
5. Holy cow!!
6. Hees :D
7. :)
8. Holy cow!!!
9. Shit!
10. Dudes...
11. I'm so bored.
12. I am hungry.
13. Holy cow!
14. Chalo, lets go.
15. Awesome!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Read this

I can very well relate to this post. Very well written and echoes my thoughts.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Modestos

Its an Italian restaurant at Vivocity, here in Singapore. Shub and I had discovered this restaurant during one of our aimless walking around in Vivocity. They had advertized themselves as serving wood fired pizzas. Somehow we were not able to go there at that time, but did end up going recently.

It is said that "The first impression is the best impression". It so holds true for this restaurant. What happened that it left such an impression on me, you ask? Let me tell you. Point by point.

1. They had a separate menu (and I might say with quite a variety of choice) for VEGETARIANS!!!! Yipppeeeee!!!!! Its not that easy to find veg food in Singapore, unless you are around Little India. We do have restaurants in other areas which cater to the vegetarian crowd, but not in abundance. Also, it was not just a couple of items. They had veg dishes in the entire range, be it Anti-pasti (Appetizer), Insalata (Salad), Zuppe (Soup), Pasta, Pizza or Dolci (Desserts). YUM!

2. The restaurant is right next to the waterfront. So you can look across the strait towards Sentosa Island while you dine (if you choose to sit out that is).

3. They were extremely fast in the service. Our food was on the table within 5 minutes of placing the order.

4. They had an actual illustration of the size of the pizza in the menu. Invariably, the pizzerias convey information in terms of size like 7", 10", etc... While this is technically correct, it is of little help to customers who are wondering how many pizzas to order. By actually showing the customer the size of the pizza (albeit by an illustration), it makes life much easier and there are less chances of the customers ordering more than they can eat.

The fourth point is my favourite! Wow! Why hadn't it occurred it to they others ??

If you live in Singapore or are visiting, do go there. You can check them out online here. Also, checkout the vegetarian menu available online.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Wondering out loud

So, the other day a couple of friends of mine and I had been to the blood bank to donate blood. As part of the procedure we were supposed to answer a questionnaire which had questions about any illness, previous blood transfusion history, sex life, AIDS awareness etc, etc.. Once we complete the questionnaire, a doctor/counsellor reviews it in front of us by asking us the same question in person.

During the course of this review, the doctor/counsellor asked me if I was married. When I replied in negative, she immediately responded by saying that we could skip the section about the sex life as I was not married. I was taken a back a bit by this considering that this is Singapore (which happens to be one of the highly westernized countries in Asia).

I still wonder why! :-?

During the course of the blood donation there seemed to be some problem with my blood and it was flowing at a very slow pace I believe. Due to this and some other medical stuff which does not make sense to me, a bruise appeared at the spot where the needle was inserted. It became purple ans was slightly paining. So they gave me an ointment to apply everyday. After a couple of days I had totally forgotten about it, when I got a call from the blood bank inquiring about the bruise and if I was ok. That was so sweet of them to do that!! Had such a warm feeling after that. Its so nice of them to care so much. I'm impressed.